A new cancer drug discovery company called ALTx Therapeutics has been launched to develop therapies that exploit a specific vulnerability in tumours reliant on the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres or ALT pathway. This mechanism allows around 10 to 15 percent of cancers to maintain telomere length and continue dividing indefinitely, and is commonly found in tumour types that have few effective treatments. Targeting ALT could open new precision treatment options based on novel biological targets identified through a decade of research at the Francis Crick Institute.

The company has been spun out of the Crick and is being advanced by Slingshot Therapeutics, benefiting from integrated operational and development expertise while maintaining strong academic ties. An initial £12.55 million funding commitment has been made by Syncona, the Crick and Cancer Research Horizons to support early discovery and development work. ALTx’s scientific founder and chief scientific officer Simon Boulton, a leading expert in DNA damage repair and telomere biology, will drive efforts to translate ALT vulnerabilities into potential first-in-class therapies. ALTx is the second programme within the Slingshot accelerator, designed to translate world-class academic science into clinical-ready drug candidates and potentially transform outcomes for patients with ALT-positive cancers.