Company Overview
IDEAYA is a clinical-stage oncology-focused biotechnology company committed to the discovery and development of personalized therapeutics. We are using deep translational biology expertise to pursue cancers using multiple mechanistic approaches, including targeted therapies directly targeting tumor genomic susceptibilities, synthetic lethality medicines for genetically defined patient populations and immuno-oncology therapies targeting the tumor microenvironment. Founded in 2015, the Company has assembled a world-class drug discovery and development team and a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) which consists of industry thought leaders including members of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. IDEAYA is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
A major focus of IDEAYA is to exploit the concept of synthetic lethality, a phenomenon whereby the independent loss-of-function of two different genes is exploited to selectively target cancer cells. Mutation of the synthetic lethal target gene (or inhibition of its corresponding gene-product protein) has no significant effects on cell growth and viability in healthy cells, but when combined with a genetic mutation existing in tumor cells, results in robust cell death.
A further focus area of IDEAYA is to develop targeted therapies – acting on targets directly in an oncogenic pathway. Particular genomic mutations which drive proliferation in cancer cells also create susceptibilities – targets in the direct mechanistic pathways – that are druggable using small molecule therapeutics.
In addition, IDEAYA drug discovery and development programs are targeting pathways known to produce an immune suppressed tumor microenvironment, enabling tumors to escape recognition by the host immune system.
The unifying thread for each of IDEAYA’s focus areas – synthetic lethality, targeted therapies and immune oncology – is our translational expertise and platform for discovery, validation and clinical development of biomarkers in parallel with novel therapeutics. Biomarkers in each of our pipeline programs enable patient selection – identifying patients most likely to respond to a particular therapeutic, and establish target engagement – confirming that a therapeutic molecule is acting on its intended target.
