Our Science

Larkspur’s small molecules target cancer fitness genes to alter the state of cancer cells, enhancing cell death by steady state mechanisms.

Cancer fitness genes are genes that create a survival advantage for malignant cells. Larkspur’s small molecules target these gene products to make cancer cells more susceptible to competition and physiological cell death and killing mechanisms.

Spotlight on LRK-4189:

LRK-4189 is a first-in-class, orally bioavailable degrader of PIP4K2C, developed to disrupt cancer cell fitness in microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancer. By rewiring tumor-intrinsic pathways, LRK-4189 triggers cell death and activates interferon signaling, engaging both intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of cancer cell death.

LarkX, our proprietary machine-learning-enabled gene signature platform, identifies pathways with cancer cell-intrinsic adaptations that drive immune evasion.

This identifies novel targets that mediate pathological cell-to-cell communication.

Larkspur’s clinical development focuses on biomarker-driven cancer patient cohorts to achieve early proof-of-concept.

Our first-in-class pipeline programs have opportunities across multiple cancers, with our lead asset, LRK-4189, targeting MSS colorectal cancer initially.

Lead Discovery

Lead Optimization

Ind-Enabling

Phase 1

LRK-4189

First-in-class PIP4K2C protein degrader; PIP4K2C has been shown to be a cancer-intrinsic driver of immune evasion in both tumor and immune cells

Pin1 Degrader

Novel therapy targeting Pin1 to modulate fibroblasts in cancer and fibrosis

TIM-1 Program

The TIM-1 target is now being pursued as part of a Larkspur Biosciences / Alloy Therapeutics joint venture, Tiburon Therapeutics