22 July 2014 - Oncology company Sorrento Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRNE) reported on Monday the receipt of the non-dilutive funding for the development of the small molecule inhibitor targeting the important oncogenic transcription factor Myc.

The company received the Phase 1 Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

This grant will support the company's preclinical development of the Myc inhibitor, which interferes with the protein-protein interaction (PPI) between Myc and its obligatory dimerization partner, Max, preventing sequence-specific binding to DNA and subsequent initiation of oncogenic transformation.

According to the company, the Myc protein has been recognized as an important determinant of cancer metabolism and protein synthesis. It is involved as a dominant factor in most human cancers and is rarely mutated, but rather its "gain of function" results from overexpression or gene amplification. Abnormal Myc activity is believed to play a substantial role in at least one out of every seven cancer deaths and is often a key factor in breast, lung, colon, hematologic, and other cancers.

In conjunction , the principal investigator on the STTR grant is Sorrento's senior director of Research and Development Dr Gunnar F. Kaufmann, while the academic collaborator is Dr Kim D. Janda at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).