One Cancer Start-Up’s Resolve To Crack The Mystery Of Metastasis

In the fight against the seemingly random pathogenesis of cancer, one standout innovation is the ability to suppress the actions of specific genes that drive tumor progression in different cancers – the dreaded metastatic phase whose spread to other organs makes the disease a uniquely prolific killer. It is an unmet medical need of the highest order, yet most cancer research today centers on a rearguard mobilization of the immune system to find and destroy cancer receptors in individual tumors rather than address the underlying drivers of cancer growth and dispersion, across different malignancies. Yes, killing cancer cells in the tumor represents a step forward, but from the expectant eyes of the patient the ultimate test is death by metastatic disease – so shouldn’t preventing that lead the future of cancer research?

Three entrepreneurs determined to answer this question are Masoud, Sohail and Saeed Tavazoie, the sons of immigrants from Iran with...