• Transition Bio receives $750,000 grant from the Little Warrior Foundation
• Mission: advance science in one of cancer’s most elusive targets - EWS-FLI1
• Goal: create a therapeutic for an aggressive pediatric cancer – Ewing Sarcoma
• Leverage Transition Bio’s molecular drug discovery + protein science-based approach
• Enabled by Transition Bio’s proprietary physical science tools, data and machine learning

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & CAMBRIDGE, England: #cancer--Transition Bio, Inc., a drug discovery company advancing therapies for intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), a class of traditionally 'undruggable' targets, today announced a partnership with the Little Warrior Foundation (LWF), a childhood cancer non-profit with a singular focus on Ewing Sarcoma.

With a $750,000 grant from Little Warrior Foundation, Transition Bio will accelerate progress against the root biological cause of Ewing Sarcoma, the EWS-FLI1 protein. Together, the organizations will follow science with the goal of creating the first targeted therapy for patients with Ewing Sarcoma. Transition Bio will leverage its novel platform utilizing microfluidics, data and machine learning to probe disordered proteins, characterizing EWS-FLI1 behavior at the molecular level to design small molecules that disrupt its function.

"For decades, scientists have known EWS-FLI1 is the driver of this disease, yet every attempt at targeting it has fallen short. Transition Bio's approach to this target is unique, urgent, and grounded in real science - and that's exactly the kind of innovation LWF was built to fund," said Piero Spada, President and Co-Founder of Little Warrior Foundation. "Kids deserve better treatments, and partners like Transition Bio give us good reason to hope."

"We are delighted to be partnering with LWF to take on the challenge of creating a therapeutic for Ewing Sarcoma patients and their families. Notwithstanding the inherent complexity of the EWS-FLI1 target, our company was purposefully founded to address these types of challenges. We have built the tools, technology, and expertise needed to make meaningful and potentially accelerated progress from this point forward," noted Shilpi Arora, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Transition Bio.

The partnership is being announced during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness of the urgent need for better treatments and cures for pediatric cancers.

About Ewing Sarcoma

Ewing sarcoma is a highly aggressive and rare form of cancer that primarily affects children, adolescents, and young adults between the ages of 10 and 19. Approximately 300 to 400 new patients are diagnosed each year in the US, with a total US patient population of between 3,000 and 4,000. There is currently no targeted therapy for the disease. Ewing sarcoma is driven by the EWS-FLI1 fusion protein, an intrinsically disordered protein that has long been recognized as the disease's root cause but has resisted every prior drug discovery effort.

About Transition Bio

Transition Bio is an integrated technology platform that utilizes microfluidics and biophysics to generate novel understandings of the “functional molecular machinery”. The application of these tools provides the opportunity to generate completely unique data that, when coupled with dynamic machine learning, enables drug discovery in traditionally “undruggable” targets -- often defined as intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) and accounting for approximately 30% of the human genome. Transition Bio plans to utilize the platform to “solve” for these as “classes” of targets, thus enabling discovery advancement at scale.

For more information, visit https://transitionbio.com

About the Little Warrior Foundation

The Little Warrior Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2019 by the family of 9-year-old Lucy, following her diagnosis with Ewing sarcoma. It has grown into a movement of families across the United States determined to find a permanent cure. In six years, the Wisconsin-based foundation has raised more than $11.5 million to fund Ewing sarcoma research and clinical trials nationwide, partnering with institutions including Cleveland Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Levine Children's Hospital.

For more information, visit https://littlewarrior.org

Fonte: Business Wire