KOODAC

KOODAC is a team of scientists and patient advocates funded by the Cancer Grand Challenges Foundation (https://cancergrandchallenges.org); it is led by Yael Mosse and Martin Eilers. The aim of KOODAC is to develop new therapies for solid tumours in children. The members of KOODAC are shown in the picture.

Our Vision

The field of childhood cancer research and therapy is at a critical crossroad. First, survival rates for many childhood malignancies improved dramatically in the latter decades of the last century through the combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. However, survivors are often burdened with life threatening toxicities and cure rates for most solid cancers have not improved. Second, despite unprecedented discoveries regarding the aetiology of paediatric cancers and mechanisms of phenotypic variability over the last two decades, this has not yet translated into substantive improvement in patient outcomes, particularly for solid tumours. Thirdly, while the major oncogenic drivers of essentially all childhood cancers have been genetically defined, most of the encoded proteins remain undruggable to conventional modalities such as small-molecule inhibitors. In addition, attempts to target these oncoproteins indirectly have shown limited, if any, therapeutic value. Here we now embark on a new path to directly target the essential oncogenic drivers of childhood solid tumours.

For more information about the project click here.

We are hiring!!

Koodac will launch in May 2024 and we are currently recruiting people to work with us on this exciting project.

In this Cancer Grand Challenge (CGC) consortium we bring together an international group of experts in five of the most potently transforming oncoproteins that define high-risk paediatric solid malignancies with leading experts in the field of Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) and an international team of patient advocates to develop a new class of drugs for children with solid cancers. Recent advances in structural and molecular biology and discovery chemistry have the potential to bring critical oncoproteins into the realm of druggable targets by making them degradable. As a result, our singular goal here is to develop drugs that directly degrade oncoproteins that drive paediatric solid tumours. Importantly, many recent therapeutic advances in paediatric cancers that require advanced cellular manufacturing are not exportable to underserved areas of the world. As orally bioavailable drugs, degraders are readily deployable worldwide, dramatically expanding the potential impact of this project. Our multidisciplinary team shares a vision of developing safe and effective drugs that change the paradigm of paediatric cancer therapy, thus being directly responsive to the CGC of developing therapeutics to target oncogenic drivers of solid tumours in children.

Lead: Prof. Dr. Martin Eilers