Peter Mac's Dr Luc Furic is part of a research team awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Translational Science Award by the Department of Defence (DoD) in the US.

Luc Furic

Peter Mac's Dr Luc Furic is part of a research team awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Translational Science Award by the Department of Defence (DoD) in the US.

Researchers at Peter Mac and The Australian National University, working with biotechnology company Pimera, will use the over USD $1 million grant to boost their collaboration towards bringing PMR-116, a small molecule drug, to the clinic for prostate cancer patients with advanced disease.

PMR-116 is a second-generation inhibitor of RNA polymerase I (Pol I) transcription. Inhibitors of its kind have shown therapeutic potential for cancer treatment as they suppress protein synthesis, a biological process crucial for cancer cells to thrive.

"The significant support from this DoD Award will allow us to further characterise biomarkers of response to PMR-116 and perform the groundwork required to bring PMR-116 to the clinic for prostate cancer patients," said Dr Furic, Head of Translational Prostate Cancer Research at Peter Mac and Principal Investigator of the awarded project.

Around the globe, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men.

"Our preclinical data demonstrate that PMR-116 is now the best-in-class Pol I inhibitor and has shown remarkable efficacy in treating human metastatic prostate cancer in animal models," said Professor Ross Hannan, Head of the Cancer Therapeutics Group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Partner Principal Investigator of the funded research.

Currently, PMR-116 is in a Phase Ia/b clinical trial being conducted in Australia to assess its safety and tolerability.

The DoD grant, which is being jointly administered through the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, will bolster upcoming research that studies the efficacy of PMR-116 in patient-derived models, investigates novel combination therapies, and identifies biomarkers of response from the ongoing Phase I trial of PMR-116 in patients with advanced malignancies.

"We look forward to advancing PMR-116 through dose escalation, expanding into additional indications, and into Phase II to address several large cancer markets and improve patient outcomes," said Mustapha Haddach, Founder and CEO at Pimera.

Peter Mac's Dr Luc Furic is part of a research team awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Translational Science Award by the Department of Defence (DoD) in the US.

Researchers at Peter Mac and The Australian National University, working with biotechnology company Pimera, will use the over USD $1 million grant to boost their collaboration towards bringing PMR-116, a small molecule drug, to the clinic for prostate cancer patients with advanced disease.

PMR-116 is a second-generation inhibitor of RNA polymerase I (Pol I) transcription. Inhibitors of its kind have shown therapeutic potential for cancer treatment as they suppress protein synthesis, a biological process crucial for cancer cells to thrive.

"The significant support from this DoD Award will allow us to further characterise biomarkers of response to PMR-116 and perform the groundwork required to bring PMR-116 to the clinic for prostate cancer patients," said Dr Furic, Head of Translational Prostate Cancer Research at Peter Mac and Principal Investigator of the awarded project.

Around the globe, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men.

"Our preclinical data demonstrate that PMR-116 is now the best-in-class Pol I inhibitor and has shown remarkable efficacy in treating human metastatic prostate cancer in animal models," said Professor Ross Hannan, Head of the Cancer Therapeutics Group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Partner Principal Investigator of the funded research.

Currently, PMR-116 is in a Phase Ia/b clinical trial being conducted in Australia to assess its safety and tolerability.

The DoD grant, which is being jointly administered through the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, will bolster upcoming research that studies the efficacy of PMR-116 in patient-derived models, investigates novel combination therapies, and identifies biomarkers of response from the ongoing Phase I trial of PMR-116 in patients with advanced malignancies.

"We look forward to advancing PMR-116 through dose escalation, expanding into additional indications, and into Phase II to address several large cancer markets and improve patient outcomes," said Mustapha Haddach, Founder and CEO at Pimera.