About

Aethon Therapeutics unites immunotherapy and targeted therapy, to expand the power and promise of both approaches for fighting cancer.

Aethon’s novel anti-drug-peptide conjugate/MHC antibodies are designed to be used in combination with targeted covalent inhibitors (TCI) of RAS, EGFR, and other cancer-associated mutations.

The problem

Targeted therapies, such as inhibitors of RAS or EGFR, have been highly impactful, but their efficacy is impaired by tumor heterogeneity, genetic instability, and genetic and adaptive forms of resistance. Immunotherapy can be curative in some settings, but its application is limited, at least in part because many tumors lack neoantigens recognizable by the immune system.

The Aethon solution

Aethon antibodies are designed to work within the tumor environment (which includes the presence of the targeted drug) to recognize TCI-generated neoantigens, enabling the immune system to detect and eliminate tumor cells.

How it works

When covalent inhibitors bind to their target proteins inside cancer cells, they produce a peptide conjugate ‘beacon’ that is delivered only to the surface of cancer cells, and sparing healthy cells. Aethon designs and customizes antibodies to home in on that beacon, making the cancer cells vulnerable to attack.

Company origins

Aethon Therapeutics was born out of a novel cancer immunotherapy platform, dubbed HapImmune™, developed by Shohei Koide, Ph.D. and Benjamin G. Neel, M.D., Ph.D., researchers from NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. Aethon was founded in 2022 by life sciences venture capital firm ATP (Apple Tree Partners) with Drs. Koide and Neel as the company’s scientific co-founders.

The Aethon name

The word “aethon” means “shining” in Greek. And in Greek mythology, Aethon is the name of one of the horses that pulled the chariot of Helios, the sun god. Aethon also sometimes appears as the name of a fire-breathing or winged horse. The name Aethon therefore represents two attributes of the company’s therapeutic platform.

1) The beacon: Aethon creates tumor-specific antigens so that the body’s immune system can find and fight tumors that otherwise would evade detection.

2) The hybrid and the workhorse: Aethon’s proprietary therapeutics are designed to work in combination with targeted covalent inhibitors that themselves create a beacon or biomarker when they are present at the tumor site. Like a horse pulling the chariot of the sun, Aethon antibodies, when added to a targeted covalent inhibitor (TCI) drug, add dimensions of power and utility: They help to overcome resistance to the TCI and improve the body’s ability to attack cancer.

Aethon antibodies are specifically engineered to improve the efficacy of TCIs, eliminate resistance, and prevent relapse.