AmbAgon Therapeutics

Small molecule cancer drugs that stabilize the direct interaction of oncogenic proteins with the 14-3-3 class of adaptor proteins

6 additional undisclosed programs RD oncology

Ambagon Therapeutics is enhancing the activity of tumor suppressors by creating cancer molecule therapeutics. 14-3-3 proteins are adaptor proteins that play a key role in a large number of disease-related pathways, but are intrinsically disordered, making it hard to design small molecule binders. However, these disordered regions become ordered when 14-3-3 binds other “client” protein interactors. Different clients create structurally unique pockets on 14-3-3 enabling Ambagon to develop small molecules that can stabilize specific 14-3–3:client interactions. Ambagon has built an extensive database of 14-3-3:client protein structures to quickly identify the most promising candidates for screening. Amabagon now has five programs in early discovery and expects one to reach development by 2023.