Oniria Therapeutics spun off from VHIO, UB and ICREA with support from “la Caixa” Foundation, AECC and ISCIII to eliminate resistant tumor cells
The Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), University of Barcelona (UB) and Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) have joined forces to create Oniria Therapeutics, a preclinical biopharmaceutical company that aims to develop innovative drugs for precision oncology.
The new spin-off has received financial support from the “la Caixa” Foundation, Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII). It will focus on therapies to eliminate persistent tumor cells that are resistant to conventional treatments, which are responsible for relapses and patients moving into the most advanced stages of the disease.
They have several projects underway, but the most advanced is a first-in-class drug called ONR-001 that modulates the TET2 epigenetic factor. TET2 is an orchestra leader that conducts the overall activity of the genome precisely, regulating the methylation profile to recede in an orderly fashion and forcing tumor cells to “sleep” without losing their potential for malignancy in the future.
Oniria Therapeutics has a patent on TET2 modulators, which have proven effective in animal models for cancer.
ONR-001 induces and sustains latency in tumor cells, and even kills them with prolonged treatment. This mechanism of action makes it possible to control persistent cells, which cause 90% of cancer deaths due to recurrence and metastasis.
Oniria Therapeutics is currently assessing the drug’s efficacy in treating different types of cancer.
Founding team of excellence
The Oniria Therapeutics founding team is made up of Dr. Héctor G. Palmer, head of the VHIO Stem Cells and Cancer group, as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO); Esther Riambau, expert in venture building, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Dr. Isabel Puig, senior researcher in the VHIO Stem Cells and Cancer group, as Scientific Advisor for new therapeutic targets; Dr. Xavier Barril, a ICREA researcher at UB, as Scientific Advisor in computational chemistry, and Dr. Carlos Galdeano, Serra Húnter professor and head of the Targeted Protein Degradation Laboratory at UB, as Scientific Advisor in drug discovery. To complete the team, we have Dr. Josep Tabernero, director of the VHIO and head of the Medical Oncology Unit at Vall d’Hebron Hospital, as Clinical Advisor.
“It is highly motivating and exciting to see that what we’ve been working on for so many years is reaching a phase that will soon make it available to cancer patients and help them fight this disease,” says Dr. Héctor G. Palmer.
“At the VHIO, we are committed to research and believe that it must then be transferred to clinical practice and directly benefit patients. That’s why we have to set up companies to develop new solutions discovered in the lab,” added Dr. Josep Tabernero.
The paradox of dormant tumor cells
A tumor is made up of cells that have taken on all the mutations they need to grow and multiply continuously, out of control. However, there are molecular mechanisms that can suppress this growth and force these cells into latency.
“These cells can remain in the body, undetectable, resistant to treatment and spread to various organs. For reasons we don’t yet understand, there comes a time when these dormant cells wake up, behave like stem cells and regenerate tumors,” explains Dr. Héctor G. Palmer.
Years of work carried out by Dr. Palmer’s team at the VHIO has perfected a method to isolate and analyze these dormant cells and shows that eliminating TET2 induces dormant tumor cell death and, therefore, has potential as a new therapeutic target.
“Studying latent cells has proven their resistance to treatments and key role in relapses, and has revealed that TET2 is a key factor in their specific biology. But the most important discovery has been that TET2 can be cancer’s Achilles heel,” notes Dr. Héctor G. Palmer.
Developing TET2 modulators is one of the main goals of Oniria Therapeutics, which hopes to transfer all this knowledge to help fight cancer using precision oncology.
