CaTCh

Despite all advances in the treatment of cancer, this is still one of the most frequent and deadliest diseases. Available therapies usually have limited efficacy and resistance mechanisms often occur. By integrating data from robust and well-structured in vitro and in vivo assays, CaTCh will investigate the antitumorigenic activity and biosafety of a panel of new chemical compounds in distinct tumor models. Agents were synthesized by the team and preliminary tests showed great anti-colorectal cancer activity (IC50 2-20x lower than IC50 of 5FU) in vitro. Of note, one particular compound (C10), while showing negligible toxicity in normal cell lines, was found to hit two key oncogenes for which no direct therapies are currently available. As the other drugs are family-derivatives of C10, a similar effect is foreseen, at least for some of them. CaTCh is expected to provide new, unique and most importantly efficacious solutions to cancer treatment thus tackling clinical unmet needs