c-Myc
UCL and Marc Mansour
Mapping c-Myc mechanism of action with leukaemia biology and MYC-driven disease models at UCL.
- MYC oncogene biology
- Acute leukaemia models
- Transcriptional dependency
Why we partner
c-Myc has long been called undruggable because it is disordered outside its complex with MAX and presents no classical pocket. Turning a Peptone binder into a first-in-class therapeutic still depends on disease biology: which MYC dependencies matter, which models report real transcriptional control, and how mechanism of action should be read in living systems. We partner with Prof. Marc Mansour at UCL Cancer Institute to answer those questions with cutting-edge leukaemia and MYC biology.
Scientific focus
Prof. Mansour leads the Leukaemia Biology Research Laboratory at UCL, with deep work on T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia. His group studies oncogene maintenance, enhancer dysregulation, and therapeutic strategies against MYC, including functional mapping of MYC protein interactions. That expertise is precisely the disease context Peptone needs when a disorder-first chemistry program enters biological validation.
What Peptone brings
Peptone contributes ensemble characterisation of disordered c-Myc and small molecule series designed to disrupt productive MYC interactions. The platform supplies measured conformational insight and early chemical matter so collaboration time is spent on biology that can discriminate true MoA from nonspecific cellular effects.
What we do together
Together we advance mechanism-of-action understanding in MYC-driven models: target engagement, transcriptional consequences, and disease biology readouts that decide whether a series is worth optimising. The collaboration gives Peptone access to specialised cellular systems and biological frameworks that sit ahead of generic oncology screening panels.
Therapeutic ambition
The collaboration exists to generate first-in-class c-Myc therapeutics by pairing Peptone's disordered-protein chemistry with disease biology that few groups can match. Access to cutting-edge MYC models and mechanistic insight is the advantage: deepen understanding of how our compounds work, then advance only the molecules that earn that understanding.