In a laboratory on the UC Riverside campus, two scientists have spent years hunting one of cancer's most dangerous accomplices, a protein that helps tumors spread like wildfire through the human body.
Now their pursuit just got a major boost.
Armida Labs, the UCR startup founded by researchers Maurizio Pellecchia and Carlo Baggio, has won a $2.25 million federal grant to fast-track their experimental drug Targefrin toward human trials. The treatment could offer new hope for patients facing pancreatic cancer and other notoriously aggressive tumors.
"This is the kind of support that can change everything," said Pellecchia, a distinguished professor at UCR's School of Medicine who discovered the compound. "We're talking about cancers that give patients months, not years. Every breakthrough matters."
The drug targets a cellular villain called EphA2, a protein that essentially gives cancer cells a passport to travel through the body. While most people have never heard of EphA2, oncologists know it all too well, high levels often spell disaster for patients with pancreatic, lung, breast and other solid tumors.
What makes Targefrin particularly clever is how it works. Rather than trying to block EphA2, the drug tricks cancer cells into destroying the protein themselves.
"Think of it like a Trojan horse," explained Baggio, the company's chief technology officer and a former senior scientist in Pellecchia's lab. "We designed a molecule that mimics the body's natural control system for EphA2. When our drug shows up, the cancer cell thinks everything is normal and actually removes EphA2 from its surface — essentially disarming itself."
The National Cancer Institute grant will fund the final studies needed before the FDA will allow human testing. It's a critical milestone that many experimental drugs never reach.
For Pellecchia, who holds the Daniel Hays Chair in Cancer Research at UCR, the moment is especially sweet. The team has been refining Targefrin for years, tweaking its chemical structure through countless iterations to improve how it binds to its target.
"When you see something work in the lab, you always wonder, will this be the one that makes it to patients?" he said. "Now we're closer than ever to finding out."
The stakes couldn't be higher. Pancreatic cancer kills more than 50,000 Americans annually, with most patients surviving less than a year after diagnosis. The disease is particularly cruel because it often spreads before symptoms appear, making early detection nearly impossible.
If Targefrin proves effective in clinical trials, it could work against multiple cancer types that rely on EphA2 to spread. The protein shows up in excessive amounts in prostate, colorectal and ovarian cancers, among others.
The success also highlights UCR's emerging role in biotechnology. Working from the university's incubator space, Armida Labs represents the kind of bench-to-bedside translation that can turn academic discoveries into real treatments.
Still, challenges remain. Even with the federal grant, which builds on an earlier $600,000 award, the company will need additional funding to carry Targefrin through clinical trials and potential FDA approval.
"We're at that crucial point where science meets reality," Pellecchia said. "The molecule works. The preclinical data is strong. Now we need to prove it can help actual patients."
For a disease that has frustrated researchers for decades, any progress feels monumental. And for two scientists in Riverside, that progress is finally within reach.
