EPICS is a  drug discovery company dedicated to creating new medicines for unmet medical needs in oncology

EPICS has a pipeline of products advancing innovative small molecules toward discovery & development on targets with the most compelling links to cancer disease.

The RNA Epigenetic Revolution

When considering epigenetics, chemical modifications of histones and DNA took first place and high interest in biological and medical research. However, it is increasingly clear that, besides these two pillars, a third pillar of epigenetics should also be considered: the modifications of RNA, also termed “RNA epigenetics”.

RNA Epigenetics is emerging as a new field complementing the system-wide epigenetic regulation of physiological processes. Similarly to DNA and histone modifications, various chemical modifications are known to decorate RNAs. Their alteration can modify RNA’s structural stability as well as their regulatory activities, in addition to modify the translation of genes to proteins. Linking RNA epigenetic alteration to pathophysiological processes in cancer has become a field of intense research. First insights are indeed showing critical roles played by RNA modifications in several cancers.

Developing « First-in-Class » treatments based on modulators of RNA epigenetic targets

As for DNA and histone modifications, “writers”, “readers”, and “erasers” control the reversible chemical modifications of RNA. Writers are enzymes that attach chemical marks; so-called “readers” bind to these marks; eraser enzymes remove the marks.

EPICS’goal is to translate the groundbreaking in RNA modification pathways into the discovery of first-in-class drugs in oncology and other diseases. EPICS’ambition is to fully integrate drug discovery and development platform and create a robust pipeline of programs across the writer, eraser, and reader classes of RNA epigenetic targets to develop new drugs for the treatment of human diseases with high unmet medical need.