Sethera Therapeutics wins CDMRP-backed breast cancer award with Roswell Park

Sethera Therapeutics and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have secured FY25 Breast Cancer Research Program funding for a project targeting mutant p53 in breast cancer. The award backs Sethera’s peptide platform as researchers look for a new way to modulate a difficult cancer target.

Why it matters: - The project targets mutant p53, one of cancer biology’s most difficult and widely studied problem proteins. - Mutant p53 is tied to aggressive breast cancers and limited targeted treatment options. - The award gives Sethera Therapeutics and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center federal support to test a peptide-based strategy that could open a new therapeutic path.

What happened: - Sethera Therapeutics said a collaborative breast cancer research project with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center received funding through the Fiscal Year 2025 Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award. - The award is administered by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, or CDMRP. - The research team is led by Dr. Katerina Gurova at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Dr. Karsten Eastman at Sethera Therapeutics. - The announcement was made in Salt Lake City on August 10, 2026.

The details: - Sethera’s polymacrocyclic peptide, or pMCP, platform is designed to discover and engineer constrained peptide molecules with differentiated architectures and chemistries. - The technology was first developed at the University of Utah with NIH support and is exclusively licensed to Sethera Therapeutics. - The platform is intended to reach difficult biological targets that conventional drug modalities have struggled to address. - The collaborative project will use the pMCP platform to find constrained peptide molecules that bind mutant p53 and stabilize conformations associated with restored tumor-suppressive activity. - The work focuses on mutant p53 forms that can adopt abnormal shapes, helping cancer cells survive, divide and resist treatment. - Sethera says the goal is not only to block a cancer target, but to modulate mutant p53 structure and function in ways that are difficult for conventional modalities. - The approach is aimed at breast cancers driven by p53 mutations, including cancers with limited targeted treatment options. - The Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award is meant to support high-impact studies that advance prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Between the lines: - The funding signals outside validation for Sethera’s peptide platform and its focus on structurally complex targets. - The project also reflects a broader research trend: using constrained peptides to tackle proteins that are hard to drug with small molecules or biologics. - Karsten Eastman said the collaboration will let the teams test whether the molecules can produce meaningful functional rescue in disease-relevant systems. - The award adds momentum to federal support for translational breast cancer research that aims to challenge existing treatment paradigms.

What's next: - Sethera and Roswell Park will use the award to advance discovery and testing of mutant p53-binding peptide molecules. - The next phase is likely to focus on whether the candidates can restore tumor-suppressive activity in relevant breast cancer models. - Sethera said it also remains open to partnering with industry and research institutions on difficult drug discovery targets. - More information about partnering is available at Sethera’s website.