Sprint Bioscience awarded grant from VINNOVA to treat intractable cancer

Sprint Bioscience has been awarded funding from VINNOVA’s program “Forska & Väx” to develop drug candidates to treat intractable cancers.

In the funded project, the goal is to counteract a process in some cancer cells called autophagy. This is a mechanism cells use to break down the defective or unnecessary components and re-use the material. Autophagy is an important survival mechanism that cancer cells use to evade chemotherapy.

Inhibition of autophagy is a very promising area for new cancer therapies where Sprint Bioscience is in the forefront. The goal is that with appropriate, well-characterized molecules show that autofagi inhibition is a successful approach for cancer treatment.

We got the opportunity to ask Anne-Marie Wenthzel, Director Business Development at Sprint Bioscience, some questions.

Sprint Bioscience is a drug discovery company operating in the preclinical discovery phase and you are specialized on oncology therapeutics targeting cancer metabolism. But you also offer services to other pharma companies based on your fragment based drug discovery platform. Why did you choose to work with dual business models?

It is true that Sprint Bioscience has two pillars: our own drug development and support of external projects. At the time the company was founded the service to other companies was one source for financing the internal projects. Today, the situation is slightly different, but we still have external projects we support and we will most likely continue doing so. We find many of these projects both exciting and enriching.

What will the grant from VINNOVA be used for?

The goal of the proposed project is to develop chemical compounds that can be used in in vivo experiments to prove the usefulness of autophagy inhibition as cancer treatment.

You are located at Greenhouse Labs at the KTH campus. What are the advantages?

Greenhouse Labs is run by KTH and the School of Chemical Science. Being close to a chemistry department gives us possibility to collaborate and to have access to advanced equipment we may need occasionally. 

For more information, please visit www.sprintbioscience.com