On October 13, 2026 Rgenta Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of oral small molecules targeting RNA and RNA regulation for oncology and neurological disorders, reported that an abstract highlighting clinical data from the ongoing Phase 1a/b study of RGT-61159, an oral MYB splicing modulator, in patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) has been accepted as a poster at the upcoming European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) Congress 2026, taking place October 23-27, 2026, in Madrid, Spain.

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Poster presentation details:

Title: RGT-61159, an Oral MYB Splicing Modulator, Demonstrates Exposure-Dependent Target Engagement and Early Clinical Activity in Advanced Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma
Presentation Number: 1582P
Session Date & Time: Monday, October 26, 2026; 12:00 – 12:45 p.m. CET
Session Title: Head and neck cancer, excluding thyroid

The full abstract will be available for public viewing via the ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper) Congress website on Monday, October 19, 2026, here. The full poster will be available for public viewing via the ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper) Congress website on October 23, 2026.

About RGT-61159
RGT-61159 is an orally available small molecule designed to specifically modulate splicing of the transcription factor MYB resulting in the inhibition of oncogenic MYB protein production, which has the potential to inhibit proliferation or induce cell death of cancer cells that overexpress MYB protein. MYB acts as a master regulator of cell proliferation differentiation processes and its aberrant expression has been demonstrated in multiple forms of human cancer including adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), acute myeloid leukemias (AML), T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (T-ALL), colorectal cancer (CRC), small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and breast cancer.

About Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC)
It is estimated that approximately 200,000 people are living with ACC throughout the world including 11,000 in the US. While it is a rare cancer, ACC is the second most common cancer type arising in the salivary gland and is an aggressive malignancy with a tendency to infiltrate surrounding nerves and metastasize to distant sites. Overactivation of the MYB oncogene has been described as a hallmark of ACC and is noted in over 90% of ACC. Treatment for ACC is extremely challenging and may include surgery and/or radiation, which often fails to control local tumor recurrence and distant metastases. There are no effective targeted therapies available for patients with recurrent and/or metastatic disease. There is thus an unmet medical need for new therapeutic targets and treatment strategies for patients with this fatal cancer.

(Press release, Rgenta Therapeutics, OCT 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234673372])

On October 13, 2026 Envisagenics, Inc., an AI-driven RNA splicing therapeutics company, reported that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct to Phase II grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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The award will provide more than $2 million over two years to support further development and commercialization of SpliceCore, including SpliceDisco, a new machine learning algorithm designed to connect cancer-specific therapeutic targets with the splicing mechanisms that drive disease. With this capability, Envisagenics can prioritize targets with strong biological rationale and therapeutic potential.

"We believe SpliceDisco will be a critical tool in helping us identify and prioritize novel cancer targets most prevalent in patient populations, and more specifically those directly linked to pathological splicing mechanisms," said Martin Akerman, CTO and Co-Founder of Envisagenics. "By deploying SpliceDisco across our oncology programs, we aim to strengthen the biological rationale behind our targets and accelerate the development of differentiated cancer therapies."

Alternative RNA splicing is a fundamental biological process that enables a single gene to produce multiple distinct proteins. In many cancers, this process becomes dysregulated, generating protein isoforms found only in tumor cells. These tumor-specific isoforms represent a significant and largely untapped opportunity to develop precision therapies that spare healthy tissue.

Envisagenics’ proprietary SpliceCore AI software platform combines artificial intelligence, large-scale transcriptomic analysis, and experimental validation to systematically identify and prioritize these therapeutic opportunities. Built on one of the industry’s most comprehensive RNA splicing resources, SpliceCore predicts critical characteristics, including disease specificity, patient prevalence, and therapeutic suitability, to enable the development of highly differentiated precision medicines.

The project funded with this grant will support the development of SpliceDisco. By combining AI-driven prioritization with experimental validation, the project is designed to generate cancer-specific, partner-ready therapeutic target opportunities with defined disease relevance, patient prevalence, and modality fit across Envisagenics’ internal oncology pipeline and external collaboration programs.

"This award represents an important milestone in our mission to unlock the therapeutic potential of RNA splicing biology in oncology," said Maria Luisa Pineda, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Envisagenics. "With support from the NCI, we will further advance our platform capabilities and accelerate the discovery of first-in-class therapeutic programs that have the potential to address significant unmet medical needs for patients."

This award builds on Envisagenics’ track record of innovation and prior support from the NIH, including previous SBIR grants focused on advancing AI-driven RNA splicing analytics and therapeutic target discovery for precision medicines.

"We are grateful for the NIH’s continued support of innovative technologies and for recognizing the transformative potential of AI-enabled RNA splicing analysis," said Dr. Pineda. "This support will help us expand SpliceCore for both our internal pipeline and external partnerships. As oncology drug developers seek more precise and disease-specific targets, alternative splicing represents a differentiated source of therapeutic opportunities."

(Press release, Envisagenics, OCT 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234673371])

On October 13, 2026 Teiko reported a collaboration with the University of Utah’s U of U Health and the Huntsman Cancer Institute to develop a series of breakthrough immune profiling tests, starting with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). This first study marks the start of a broader, long-term collaboration between the two organizations, with plans to extend the work across multiple disease areas where stabilized samples and high-resolution immune profiling make a difference for patients. As part of this initiative, University of Utah Health Innovations will become an investor in Teiko.

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AML is an aggressive blood cancer. Patients with measurable residual disease (MRD) after treatment roughly have a five-year overall survival rate of approximately 34%, compared with 68% for patients without detectable MRD.

Multiparameter flow cytometry is used in 60%+ of AML MRD assessments, but it must reliably identify leukemic cells present at frequencies as low as 0.01–0.1% of total cells. Guidelines recommend acquiring at least 500,000–1,000,000 CD45+ events with adequate cell viability to achieve this limit of detection.

Acquiring this amount of cells depends heavily on sample quality. With current workflows, bone marrow must be processed within 24-72 hours of collection. Even within that window, storage and transit time degrade sample quality. As a result, high-quality MRD testing is largely limited to specialized laboratories capable of rapid processing. This barrier means patients who receive care in a community or rural setting often do not have access to MRD testing. Teiko and University of Utah aim to change that.

In initial testing, Teiko’s stabilization kit fixes bone marrow at the point of collection, extending the processing window from 72 hours to 90 days, thereby allowing community hospitals to ship samples to a central laboratory and for biobanking. In collaboration with the U, Teiko will be developing a high-parameter spectral flow panel on bone marrow that will measure disease burden before and after treatment.

AML is the first of several disease areas that Teiko and the University of Utah plan to pursue together to advance precision diagnostics, with more details to come as the collaboration progresses.

(Press release, University of Utah, OCT 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234673370])

On October 13, 2026 Enodia Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing novel small-molecule therapies for targeted protein degradation at the point of synthesis, reported it has entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Pfizer Inc. to discover and develop Sec61 inhibitors. The collaboration aims to accelerate the discovery and advancement of novel small-molecule therapeutics leveraging Enodia’s proprietary platform.

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Enodia’s proprietary platform enables selective Sec61 Translocon modulation, a novel approach to inhibit disease-driving proteins at the point of synthesis before pathological effects occur, while preserving essential physiological functions. Enodia has built a broad and well-characterized chemical space spanning multiple Sec61 inhibitor families, supported by extensive biological datasets, including proteomics, cryo-EM and tailored cell-line libraries that enable rational small-molecule design powered by machine learning.

"Enodia has built a broad platform that enables selective Sec61 Translocon modulation, a novel approach to inhibit disease-driving proteins while preserving essential physiological functions," said Yves Ribeill, Chief Executive Officer of Enodia Therapeutics. "We look forward to collaborating with Pfizer, combining their deep expertise and clinical resources with our approach for precisely targeting pathological proteins to bring forth potential new medicines."

Enodia was represented by Alexandra Carrel (Founding Partner) and Thomas Rocco (Of Counsel) of MCE Carrel Avocats, as legal counsel, in connection with the transaction.

Under the agreement, Enodia will conduct discovery activities to screen, optimize and develop Sec61 inhibitor candidates against multiple collaboration targets. After the collaboration term, Pfizer will be responsible for all clinical, manufacturing, regulatory and commercial activities. Enodia will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for future research, development and sales milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on net sales, bringing the total potential value to more than $500 million.

(Press release, Enodia Therapeutics, OCT 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234673369])

On October 13, 2026 Natera, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRA), a global leader in cell-free DNA and precision medicine, and TransCode Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNAZ), a clinical stage company pioneering immuno-oncology and RNA-based therapeutics for the treatment of high-risk and advanced cancers, reported a strategic collaboration in colorectal cancer (CRC).

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The collaboration will support enrollment for TransCode’s Phase 2a trial evaluating TTX-MC138 in patients with CRC. Patients will be eligible for enrollment if they have completed curative-intent therapy and remain positive for molecular residual disease (MRD), as detected by Natera’s Signatera test, with no radiographic evidence of disease. The collaboration aims to surface patient populations who meet the trial’s MRD-positive eligibility criteria more efficiently, streamline site-level identification, and optimize the pace and quality of enrollment for the study.

The patient population studied in the trial faces a significant risk of recurrence, yet there are currently no approved therapies for MRD-positive patients who remain disease-free on imaging. TTX-MC138 works to address this critical treatment gap by intervening earlier in the disease course.

"Identifying recurrence of colorectal cancer before it becomes clinically apparent, when it is potentially much easier to treat, is one of the central challenges in developing breakthrough therapies that help to answer unmet medical needs for this setting," said Philippe P. Calais, PharmD, Ph.D., chairman and CEO, TransCode Therapeutics. "Leveraging one of the most established MRD testing footprints will help us identify high-risk patients faster and potentially intervene earlier, advancing a new treatment paradigm focused on addressing cancer at the molecular residual disease stage before recurrence becomes clinically apparent."

"We are pleased to collaborate with TransCode to bring the power of Signatera to bear on one of the most difficult problems in clinical development: finding the right patients at the right time," said Eric Matthews, general manager, biopharma, Natera. "By identifying Signatera MRD-positive patients for enrollment, we aim to support the advancement of this promising therapy for patients and build on the growing clinical and scientific momentum supporting MRD-guided strategies in colorectal cancer."

TransCode’s study is being conducted by Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative within its PRE-I-SPY program, a leading platform for innovative oncology clinical trials. This trial represents the program’s first expansion beyond breast cancer into CRC. The PRE-I-SPY platform extends the clinically validated I-SPY trial model into early feasibility testing to accelerate biologically targeted therapies into the curative-intent setting. TTX-MC138 is a first-in-class therapeutic candidate designed to inhibit microRNA-10b (miR-10b), a biomarker widely linked to the emergence and progression of metastatic cancers, including CRC. More information can be found at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05868226).

(Press release, Natera, OCT 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234673368])