Artisan Biopharma

09/07/2026

Our sister R&D lab's work, and part of the Artisan pipeline

Day 6:
In 1962, Neil Armstrong's two-year-old daughter, Karen “Muffie” Armstrong, died after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

Seven years later, her father became the first person to walk on the moon.

Today, more than 60 years after Karen's death, DIPG remains one of the most difficult childhood cancers to treat. About 300 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with DIPG each year, and most children diagnosed do not live longer than two years.

That contrast should make us stop and think.

We have demonstrated what is possible when we decide a problem is worth solving and when we commit the people, resources, science and determination necessary to solve it.

So what would happen if we treated childhood cancer research with that same sense of urgency?

What if the next generation of scientists could answer the questions that have remained unanswered for decades?

What if a child diagnosed with a cancer like DIPG today had options that simply didn't exist before?

That's the kind of future cc-TDI is working toward.

Childhood cancer research isn't just about understanding what we know.

It's about having the courage to ask what we don't.

08/19/2026

a cross-over from our sister R&D lab ...

Hot off the Press! Samuel and co-authors describe the role of TrkB in the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, highlighting a new form of medicine turning off TrkB in an "allosteric" manner (created by study co-lead Dr Tyuji Hoshino at Chiba University).

The international collaborators include researchers and clinicians at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Colorado Denver. This project was primarily supported by an anonymous donor in honor of Alyssa, and partially supported by Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and resources from the Fugaku supercomputer center.

08/14/2026

Pediatric Early Drug Development

Read Lucy and Team's summary of this recent Curesearch webinar on "The Starting Point: Realities of Pediatric Cancer Drug Development—What’s Different and Why It Matters" with Dr. Elizabeth Fox and FDA Deputy Director Dr. Nicol Drezner.

Full summary: https://artisanbio.com/pediatric-early-drug-development/

07/27/2026

cross-over from our sister R&D lab, with great insights from Michele.

hot off the press -- Children can't wait: bringing therapies to market

CEO Michele Cleary of Advancium is the guest interviewee of student journalist Anna He for the Kid's Cancer Therapy Podcast. Dr Cleary describes a nonprofit approach to childhood cancer drug development bringing impact investors and pharma experts such as herself.

For the episode, visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK6gNOfSv-E

07/23/2026

The 2026 World Health Organization Global Status Report on Cancer examines the global burden of cancer and emphasizes the significant inequities in its impact across countries and populations.

Curious findings in the WHO Report:
- low income countries have nearly half the cancer survival of high income ones (45% vs >85%)
- preventing adult cancer starts in children (limiting to***co & alcohol, HPV vaccine, preventing obesity) ... 38% of cancers are preventable by these measures!
- 2.5 billion adults are overweight or obese, and less than 30% of teens are active enough and a healthy enough diet to avoid the same fate
- millions of children become orphaned when their parents die of cancer

For the full summary by Lucy and Team, see https://artisanbio.com/global-perspective-of-the-impact-of-cancer-on-children/

06/23/2026

This commentary in Cancer Cell by academicians Heffernan and Draetta argues for (1) Letting clinical data (patient material) inform drug development, in concert with real time academic-pharma collaborations for drug development; (2) Diversifying the drug targets sought by pharma as a field; and (3) More robust preclinical research, cross-correlated using a variety of techniques.

For Lucy's full summary and our perspective, see https://artisanbio.com/the-academic-proposal-for-drug-development-and-clinical-trial-integration/

06/19/2026

AACR … from Sidney Farber’s leukemia pioneership to 2026

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world’s largest organization focused on cancer research, released its annual report on pediatric cancer progress.

The 2025 report emphasizes the need for greater research into pediatric cancers, which are rare and often understudied. AACR’s inaugural report also suggests that *investment* in equitable childhood cancer care could avert 6.2 million deaths and yield nearly $2 Billion in lifetime productivity gains by 2050. As with so many consensus statements, public-private partnerships are suggested.

For Lucy & team's full summary and perspective, see https://artisanbio.com/aacr-from-sidney-farbers-leukemia-pioneership-to-2026/

06/18/2026

Our sister organization, cc-TDI, is modeled after ALS-TDI. Curiously, the takehomes for preclinical research are the same between children's cancer and ALS.

Due Diligence, Overdue ... ?

In 2014 Steve Perrin from ALS-TDI published an editorial in Nature entitled, "Make mouse studies work". While we ourselves believe in mouse models, Dr Perrin makes important points that persist as first principles – and are worth mentioning to safeguard patients and stockholders alike.

In summary, for then and now, many promising treatments fail in human clinical trials because preclinical animal studies are often poorly designed. Although over 80% of drugs that succeed in animal studies fail in humans, this discordance is often due to poorly designed preclinical research rather than the animal models themselves. Weak animal studies can lead to costly and ineffective clinical trials, wasting money and valuable time for patients with terminal illnesses. In ALS research, successes inspired new guidelines to improve animal testing by using better disease assessment, monitoring, and statistical models. While these methods require more time and resources, they reduce false positives and help prevent unnecessary clinical trials, ultimately saving both money and lives.

To read Lucy's full summary and perspective, see https://artisanbio.com/due-diligence-overdue/

06/16/2026

Another crossover from our sister R&D lab, here showing the complex tumor cell subtypes of a childhood muscle cancer. Fortunately, the common denominator might be a single driver (PAX::FOXO)

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AGqtrLifj/

Hot Off the Press! This Scientific Reports paper from cc-TDI describes the beautiful complexity of at least 11 (yes, eleven) subtypes of cancer cells found in rhabdomyosarcoma. Curiously, human cell lines only reflect a few.

This work was done by cc-TDI lab members Guak-Kim Tan and Zu-Yuan Qian with help from cc-TDI student researchers Sofia Tosoni and Gillian St John. Collaborators included Kavya Kannan, Hollis Wright and Melvin Lathara (datma/ODA), Sonja Chen (Nationwide Children's Hospital) and Brian Rubin (Cleveland Clinic). Acknowledgements go to Mattie Clark for important technical contributions.

Funding was made possible by Avery's Rhabdo Blast! project, the Ally Anderson AlveolarRhabdomyosarcoma Research Fund at Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation, The Megan's Mission Foundation and NIH.

For the full article, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-57841-3

06/15/2026

A cross-over from Artisan's sister R&D lab, cc-TDI

International ThinkTank ranks Rhabdomyosarcoma Targets

The British Journal of Cancer is hot off the press: LifeArc brought together 45 international experts in rms science and treatment to prioritize new drug approaches. We're excited about PAX::FOXO1 itself, as discussed in this consensus paper.

For the full article, see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-026-03483-1