Volastra Therapeutics announced partnerships with Microsoft, Function Oncology and Tailor Bio with the goal of broadening the potential of its evolving therapeutics pipeline across a large number of tumor types through identification of predictive biomarkers. Volastra leads the field in development of therapeutics that target chromosomal instability (CIN), a key characteristic of cancer associated with accelerated disease progression, increased resistance to therapies, and shortened patient survival. While CIN is a hallmark of cancer, levels of CIN vary widely across tumor types from being nearly ubiquitous in some to only partially present in others.

Volastra?s two KIF18A inhibitors are in parallel Phase 1 clinical trials treating tumor types with near-universally high levels of CIN. Significant potential remains in many other tumor types, for which a biomarker-defined approach may be able to identify subsets of patients most likely to benefit from treatment.