Founded in 2020, Myricx Pharma is developing small molecule inhibitors that selectively target the human N-myristoyltransferases (NMT) in cancer. The company is also exploring potential applications across other diseases.
Based on research from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute, Myricx says it has uncovered one of the most promising new areas of biology; opening up N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) as a therapeutic target has the potential to for the development of precision medicines for cancer and a range of diseases.
Myristoylation is a lipid modification to a specific group of proteins that allows them to interact with other proteins or membranes. It is catalysed by the enzyme N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) which introduces irreversible changes to human proteins and is known to be involved in a range of diseases including cancer, inflammatory conditions, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.
The company is pursuing NMT inhibition in a variety of indications with an initial focus in oncology exploiting novel discoveries that identified that inhibition of NMT results in specific cancer cell killing via an unexpected and unique mechanism. Myricx has discovered that its NMT inhibitors are proving to be highly effective in the treatment of MYC-driven cancer models. The company says that until now MYC was considered to be undruggable.
Myricx is based on over 15 years of NMT biology and chemistry research from the laboratories of its co-founders, Professor Ed Tate, Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Andrew Bell, Chemistry Consultant, and Dr Roberto Solari, Chief Executive Officer.
The company officially launched in November 2020 with £4.5M in funding from Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital Partners.
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