NERx Biosciences to Present New Data Highlighting Their Pre-clinical Pipeline of Drugs Targeting the DNA Damage Response at American Association For Cancer Research Annual Meeting in April

NERx innovations make leaps towards breast and lung cancer treatment

INDIANAPOLIS, March 30, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NERx Biosciences, an oncology company led by John Turchi and Katherine Pawelczak, will be presenting on two pre-clinical pipeline drugs that may have a broad impact on curing two of the most common and deadly cancers: lung and breast. The new drugs target the DNA Damage Response (DDR) pathway, allowing doctors to selectively kill cancer cells.

The two first-in-class drugs will be presented by NERx Biosciences at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2022 Annual Meeting, being held April 8-13, 2022, in New Orleans, LA.

The NERx presentations include:

In vivo targeting Replication Protein A for cancer therapy, will be presented on April 11 in the Genomic instability I (9 am – 12:30 pm) session. This work highlights second generation RPA inhibitors (RPAis) that block the RPA–DNA interaction and optimized formulation for in vivo analyses, and may provide an effective therapeutic option for difficult-to treat cancers. Chemical RPA inhibition potentiates the anticancer activity of a series of DDR inhibitors and traditional DNA damaging cancer therapeutics, and results in single agent anti-cancer activity in lung and breast tumor models.

Impact of novel Ku-DNA binding inhibitors on the DNA DSBs-induced DNA damage response, will be presented on April 12 in the DNA Damage Response and Repair (9 am – 12:30 pm) session. This poster will emphasize new findings showing potentiation of the cellular effects of bleomycin and IR, presenting a promising anti-cancer approach. Additional data presented will highlight the potential for these novel inhibitors to abrogate autophosphorylation of DNA-PKcs and impacting DNA DSB repair and potentially DDR signaling.

“Targeting the DDR is increasingly recognized as having great potential to impact cancer treatment,” said Dr. Shadia Jalal, Chair of the NERx Medical Advisory Board and the Lawrence Einhorn Scholar at the Indiana University Comprehensive Cancer Center. “The novel targets and drugs under development at NERx are on the forefront and hold considerable potential to change the treatment of cancer.”

Poster Details
Title: In vivo targeting Replication Protein A for cancer therapy
Category/Session: PO.MCB07.01 – Genomic Instability 1
Date and Time: April 11, 9 am – 12:30 pm EST
Location: PO.MCB07.01 -Section 5
Presenter: Katherine Pawelczak, Ph.D.

Title: Impact of novel Ku-DNA binding inhibitors on the DNA DSBs-induced DNA damage response
Category/Session: DNA Damage Response and Repair
Date and Time: April 12, 9 am – 12:30 pm EST
Location: PO.ET04.02 -Section 22
Presenter: Pamela L. Mendoza-Munoz, Ph.D.

About NERx Biosciences
NERx is a pre-clinical stage oncology company with a unique approach to targeting the DNA damage response (DDR) upstream of all other DDR programs in development, by disrupting protein-DNA interactions. The lead program is a novel target in the DNA damage response pathway, Replication Protein A (RPA). NERx is positioned to lead first in class and first in human trials targeting RPA for cancer therapy. Right behind RPA, the company has developed a robust discovery pipeline of first-in-class DDR programs, the most advanced being a class of small molecule inhibitors that impair NHEJ through a completely novel mechanism of inhibiting DNA-PK. More information is available at https://www.nerxbiosciences.com.

For information contact:

Katherine Pawelczak
M: +1 937-554-4954
kspawelczak@nercbiosciences.com