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RESEARCH PLATFORM FOR
THE MOON SHOTS PROGRAM
The Translational Research to AdvanCe Therapeutics and Innovation in ONcology (TRACTION) platform is on a mission to accelerate the development of novel cancer medicines to answer unmet patient needs. The platform was built to address traditional challenges in oncology drug discovery, enabling innovative and collaborative research in order to quickly and safely bring novel treatment options to those patients most likely to benefit.
TRACTION is a core component of MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery division, a unique group of clinicians, researchers and drug-discovery scientists working together to develop innovative treatment options, inspired by the needs of patients and guided by the unmatched wealth of expertise of MD Anderson physicians and researchers.
TRACTION scientists execute patient-driven translational research to advance a portfolio of novel therapeutic concepts into clinical trials. As a result of deep integration with MD Anderson investigators and the support of the Moon Shots Program® and its enabling platforms, TRACTION is making it possible to advance the most innovative therapies into clinical proof of concept studies in defined patient populations.
Creating a cancer drug typically takes years of research and testing. Cancer patients deserve better.
The TRACTION team deploys a comprehensive approach that includes disruptive technologies, cutting-edge disease modeling and enhanced data analytics to accelerate the pace of drug development and inform clinical translation. TRACTION unites industry-seasoned professionals with highly successful academic scientists forming cross-functional teams all working toward a singular goal – bringing our patients new, highly effective options. These teams are organized into three groups:
TRACTION functions as a translational-research hub at MD Anderson, promoting relationships across the institution to support highly innovative science aimed at addressing unmet clinical needs. TRACTION also engages with biopharmaceutical companies to build meaningful collaborations that align with institutional strengths and have the potential to bring impactful new therapies to MD Anderson patients.
Through this multidisciplinary approach, TRACTION fosters team science that spans basic, translational and clinical science disciplines, where expertise across MD Anderson is leveraged to drive innovation around programs with the best chance of catalyzing transformative advances.
MD Anderson and the Rare Cancer Research Foundation announced the launch of a collaboration designed to accelerate the development of new treatments for rare cancers by empowering all patients in the United States to contribute tumor samples directly to MD Anderson for translational research efforts. With these samples, MD Anderson researchers will perform comprehensive analyses and will work to develop laboratory models that can be used to pursue new therapeutic strategies for rare cancers.
Learn moreThrough an innovative reverse translation strategy, TRACTION scientists contributed to research that demonstrates androgen receptor signaling can affect targeted therapy responses in melanoma, providing a possible answer why men face a poorer prognosis than women.
MD Anderson Cancer Center and Schrödinger, Inc. announced a two-year strategic research collaboration focused on accelerating and optimizing the development of Schrödinger’s WEE1 inhibitor program, an investigational therapeutic approach designed to target the WEE1 kinase. The goal of the collaboration is to accelerate and optimize the clinical development path for Schrödinger’s WEE1 program through molecular biomarker-driven tumor type prioritization and patient stratification and to validate biomarkers to predict response or resistance to a WEE1 inhibitor.
Accelerating CDK2 Targeted Therapy
MD Anderson and Blueprint Medicines have announced a strategic research collaboration to accelerate the development of BLU-222, a targeted therapy against CDK2. TRACTION researchers will work to characterize which cancers are vulnerable to the CDK2 inhibitor, identify biomarkers and advance therapeutic strategies for optimal patient benefit.
Through a patient-driven translational biology effort, TRACTION researchers have identified and validated asparagine synthetase as a candidate biomarker to predict patients likely to benefit from treatment with IACS-627, a small-molecule glutaminase inhibitor.
MD Anderson and Boehringer Ingelheim have expanded their joint Virtual Research and Development Center to explore new molecules from Boehringer Ingelheim targeting KRAS and TRAILR2 for the potential treatment of lung cancer.
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