Verastem, Inc.'s Screening Technology Highlighted in New Study in the Journal of Biomolecular Screening that Identifies Novel Chemicals Targeting Cancer Stem Cells

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Verastem, Inc., (NASDAQ: VSTM) a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by the targeted killing of cancer stem cells, announced that researchers at the Broad Institute have published a study utilizing the cancer stem cell screening assay exclusively licensed to Verastem to identify novel chemicals that preferentially kill cancer stem cells. Published in the Journal of Biomolecular Screening, researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology utilized the screen originally developed in the laboratories of Verastem scientific cofounders Robert Weinberg, Ph.D. and Eric Lander, Ph.D. Due to the difficulty in propagating cancer stem cells outside of the tumor environment, the researchers created unique cancer stem cell-like cells and used phenotypic high-throughput screening to evaluate 300,718 compounds for their ability to preferentially kill cancer stem cells. The screen identified 2,244 hits and further characterized selective compounds.