$500,000 Awarded to Identify and Exploit New Druggable Targets in Gastroesophageal Cancer
NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The DeGregorio Family Foundation with support from the Torrey Coast Foundation has awarded $300,000 to Eric S. Fischer, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to complete his 2023 grant for $500,000. The grant is to "drug the undruggable" by identifying and exploiting protein degradation targets for new therapeutics in gastroesophageal cancer.
Esophagogastric cancers are highly lethal and despite advances for some patients such as immunotherapy, there is a lack of targeted therapies and other appropriate treatment options for the majority of patients.
Targeted protein degradation refers to the use of small molecules called "degraders" to remove disease-causing proteins by reprogramming the human body's waste disposal system. This approach allows the expansion of the scope of targeted therapies beyond conventionally druggable targets such as kinases and holds tremendous promise for new therapies.
During the first part of the project, Eric Fischer and his team developed innovative screens to discover new targets in esophagogastric adenocarcinomas. Based on the promising initial results, the team will now develop initial degraders for these targets to validate their role in promoting tumor growth. In parallel, target discovery efforts will continue to uncover additional candidate targets in this deadly disease. This work will provide the foundation for the development of novel therapeutics and fills a critical gap in the knowledge of this lethal disease.
In 2020, gastric and esophageal cancers combined killed over 1.3 million people worldwide. Patients continue to face poor prognoses following gastric and esophageal cancer diagnoses due to their chemo-resistant behavior and ability to metastasize.
"I am tremendously excited for the continued support from the DeGregorio Family Foundation to systematically identify and exploit druggable targets in this deadly disease," said Dr. Fischer.
"We are very pleased with Dr. Fischer's research results in this new area of drug development and look forward to his team's continued success," concluded Lynn DeGregorio, President and Founder of the DeGregorio Family Foundation.
The DeGregorio Family Foundation, founded in 2006 after a 10th member of the DeGregorio family died of stomach cancer, has raised more than $8 million to fund innovative research to cure gastric and esophageal cancers. It is the only public foundation focused on funding research grants for both of these cancers.
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SOURCE DeGregorio Family Foundation