Aprea Therapeutics to Host Virtual KOL Event on APR-1051, a Highly Selective and Potentially Best-in-Class Oral WEE1 Inhibitor, on Monday, June 24, 2024

On June 21, 2024 Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: APRE) ("Aprea", or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on precision oncology through synthetic lethality, reported that it will host a virtual KOL event to discuss APR-1051, a highly selective and potentially best-in-class oral WEE1 inhibitor, on Monday, June 24, 2024 at 9:00 AM ET (Press release, Aprea, JUN 21, 2024, View Source [SID1234644482]). To register, click here.

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The webinar will feature Joseph Vacca, PhD, Medicinal Chemistry Expert and Consultant to Aprea, who will discuss the medicinal chemistry history, highly selective drug design, and preclinical findings of APR-1051. It will also feature Eric J. Brown, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) who will discuss preclinical findings across the WEE1 inhibitor class. WEE1 is an enzyme involved in the DNA damage response pathway and is a validated oncology target.

APR-1051 is a potent and selective small molecule that has been designed to limit off-target toxicity. Aprea recently initiated the Phase 1 ACESOT-1051 trial evaluating APR-1051 as monotherapy treatment in patients with significant unmet medical need, including patients with Cyclin E over expression.

A live question and answer session will follow the formal presentations.

Joseph Vacca, PhD is a medicinal chemist who spent 30 years at Merck Research Laboratories (1981 to 2011). He and his teams made major contributions to several approved drugs including the HIV protease inhibitor CRIXIVAN (indinavir sulfate), the HIV integrase inhibitor Isentress (raltegravir); the HCV protease Inhibitor (Vanihep, vaniprevir), the combination product Zepatier which is a combination of the second generation HCV protease Inhibitor grazoprevir and the NS5A protein Inhibitor elbasvir and the recently approved second generation HIV NNRTI inhibitor doravirine. Upon his retirement from Merck in 2011, Dr. Vacca took a role as Senior Vice President of Early Success Sharing Partnerships at WuXi AppTec Limited. He left WuXi in September 2015 to be a consultant and now acts as an interim head of chemistry for several small startup companies. Dr. Vacca has over 100 publications and patents and is the holder of many awards including a Merck Directors Award (1998); PhRMA Discoverers Award (1999); Intellectual Property Owners "National Inventor of the year Award" (1997); European Inventor of the Year (non-EU nation) (2007); ACS "Award for Creative Invention" (1999); and was a named a Merck Research Laboratories Presidential Fellow in 2008. He was named to the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame (Aug. 2012) and was also named a "Hero of Chemistry" (along with the research team) for his role in the discovery and development of the HIV integrase inhibitorIsentress. Dr. Vacca earned a BS in chemistry in 1977 from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, and obtained a PhD degree in Organic Chemistry under Professor Peter T. Lansbury Sr. at the State University of New York at Buffalo (New York).

Eric J. Brown, PhD is Associate Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania and a Scientific Consultant to Aprea Therapeutics. Dr. Brown’s laboratory at Penn focuses on the role of the replication stress response on genome stability. His research seeks to identify the cancer-associated genetic changes that increase the efficacy of therapeutics that abrogate replication stress responses, such as ATR and WEE1 inhibitors. The genetic changes that impact sensitivity to these therapies are identified through various orthogonal approaches, including proteomics, genome-wide breakpoint mapping, and computational methods. Overall, the goal of this research is both to better understand the mechanism by which these cancer therapeutics operate and to improve responses to these treatments in patients.