Gibson Oncology Expands its Scientific Advisory Board for Novel Oncology cMYC Program

May 20, 2020 |

2 min read

Gibson Oncology, LLC, a privately-held clinical-stage company, has secured worldwide, exclusive commercial rights to a novel series of 56 rationally designed compounds called Azaindenoisoquinolines, from Purdue University and the National Cancer Institute.

May 20, 2020 11:00 UTC

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Gibson Oncology, LLC (“Gibson”), a privately-held clinical-stage company, has secured worldwide, exclusive commercial rights to a novel series of 56 rationally designed compounds called Azaindenoisoquinolines (“Aza Compounds”), from Purdue University and the National Cancer Institute. These Aza Compounds, as well as additional rationally designed compound analogs, have proven to be inhibitors of cMYC, as well as topoisomerase IB (TOP1).

Gibson’s recently licensed cMYC inhibitors represent potential “major” advances since cMYC is responsible for 80% of cancers but has been thought to be “undruggable” because of peculiarities in the cMYC receptors. Gibson’s new agents target a novel approach with clear demonstration of promoting the G quadruplex required for inhibition of cMYC, as recently published in The Journal of the American Cancer Society. The license comes with an extensive patent estate on the compounds which enable this activity.

Furthermore, based on this exciting development, Randall Riggs, CEO of Gibson Oncology, stated that he is pleased to welcome two outstanding and well-accomplished oncology experts to its scientific advisory board (SAB) in order to help the company rapidly advance the Aza Compounds to clinical trials.

Michael Zinner, M.D. is presently the CEO and Executive Medical Director of the Miami Cancer Institute and formerly was the Clinical Director of the Dana Farber-Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and Surgeon-in-Chief at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as well as co-founder of the GI Cancer Center at Dana Farber at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of over 230 academic papers, largely on the treatment of Cancer.

Danzhou Yang, Ph.D. is presently a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and Martha and Fred Borch Chair in Cancer Therapeutics, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at Purdue College of Pharmacy and Purdue Cancer Center. She has a distinguished career in DNA-associated cancer targets and is an expert in the structure-function relationships of DNA G-quadruplexes.

Dr. Yang stated, “I am excited to join Gibson’s SAB and contribute over 30 years of my anti-cancer research experience understanding cMYC’s critical role as an oncogene that impacts many human cancers and targeting cMYC for cancer therapeutics. Gibson Oncology is playing a crucial role in the development of first-in-class therapy that directly attacks cMYC, the root cause of many cancers. I look forward to advance the novel small molecule compounds in our pipeline for the future medicines to precisely turn-off this major oncogene which could be greatly beneficial to treating a variety of cancer patients.”