The TACTIC Consortium
Tumor cells are heavily reliant on abnormal transcriptional programs (transcriptional addiction) to sustain their growth and proliferation, making the underlying cellular machinery a prime target for cancer therapy. However, most oncogenic transcription factors cannot be directly targeted by small molecules, and the transcription machinery has been poorly explored by conventional drug discovery efforts.
To address this challenge, we established a network of state-of-the-art cancer and drug development laboratories, creating a national oncology drug discovery hub for Targeting transcriptional AddiCTion In Cancer, TACTIC. This combined expertise covers all aspects of drug discovery and generates a unique, fully functional experimental drug discovery value chain.
We are particularly interested in targets or targeting strategies that have not been the primary focus of industrial drug development programs, including kinases involved in RNA splicing, chromatin-modifying enzymes and more challenging targets such as protein-interaction domains. In addition to conventional small-molecule inhibitors, we are also developing new pharmaceutical modalities such as selective protein degraders.
Our vision is to set up a sustainable research infrastructure and to initiate collaborative networks by providing reagents, establishing comprehensive patient-derived cell banks, and developing key technology platforms that will be available to the wider cancer research community, facilitating future drug development initiatives in both academia and industry.
