Side Effect Fly™
Tosk’s patented Side Effect Fly technology uses Drosophila as a model to screen compounds for their potential to prevent the adverse effects of existing cancer therapies. This technology enables Tosk to efficiently identify side-effect-blocking compounds that would be difficult and costly to discover using traditional methods.
Most cancer therapies have toxic side effects that limit their use and effectiveness. Furthermore, these side effects can adversely affect patients’ quality of life to the point that the therapy may be considered worse than the disease itself. In some cases, side effects limit the dosage and the duration of treatment. Drugs that prevent the adverse effects of cancer therapies would be welcomed by the global medical community.
Genetically Modified Fly™
Tosk has also developed proprietary technology to insert human genes into Drosophila for use in drug screening. The genetically modified flies are used to test compounds for their potential to block the action of disease-causing human genes.
The first application of Tosk’s Genetically Modified Fly technology targets the human kRAS oncogene. A mutated kRAS gene is found in many types of cancers, including 90% of pancreatic cancer, 45% of colon cancer, and 35% of lung cancer. This gene is known to promote tumor growth. The kRAS gene also renders cancer drugs known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors ineffective in approximately 40% of patients. Tosk has successfully developed a kRAS fly and is deploying it to discover and develop kRAS-blocking drugs.