Established in November 2011, IACS has been operational since January 2012. Since then, the Institute has built a state-of-the-art laboratory from the ground up, recruited a staff of talented scientists with proven track records in drug discovery and development, and developed a portfolio of projects that are being driven aggressively toward the clinic.

The first of these, IACS-010759, an inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, has completed GLP-toxicology studies and an Investigational New Drug (IND) application, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during summer 2016 and has entered into a Phase I clinical trial at MD Anderson. IACS-6274 is another selected clinical candidate for a second undisclosed cancer metabolism target that is being developed in partnership with two Moon Shot™ disease sites.

The Institute has integrated capabilities in cancer biology, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, structural biology and computational chemistry, animal modeling, computational and systems biology, as well as translational medicine. Together with the research and clinical resources of the nation’s leading cancer hospital, we have the ability to take a program from a research hypothesis all the way to a clinical candidate supported by robust preclinical data, and into early phase clinical studies in well-defined patient populations.

IACS projects include drug discovery in the areas of cancer metabolism, epigenetics and signal transduction. These projects are weighed through a consideration of not only clinical impact and scientific merit but also technical feasibility. Specific factors considered in the selection criteria for each target include:

• Disease relevance — including the dependency of specific cancer cells for this protein
• Ease of therapeutic attack — especially the probability of finding a suitable molecule for proof-of-concept pharmacological studies in a timely manner
• Clinical need — emphasis on cancer subtypes where no therapy is currently available

The Institute is currently advancing three major drug discovery programs aimed at delivering clinical candidates within the next 12-24 months. In addition, we have a robust a pipeline of earlier stage programs. The nature of our work is collaborative: we work with MD Anderson investigators and have also successfully partnered with external pharmaceutical companies and foundations for some of our ongoing development programs. We will continue to forge partnerships with external parties so that, together, we can advance the most promising novel therapeutic candidates into the clinic to help patients.