Cancer research is always evolving, as scientists search for ways to combat the tricks tumors use to evade drug therapies. In the last decade alone, immunotherapies, targeted therapies, antibody-drug conjugates and radiopharmaceuticals have become standard treatment for a variety of tumors.

癌症研究一直在不断发展，科学家们正在寻找方法来对抗肿瘤逃避药物治疗的手段。仅在过去的十年中，免疫疗法，靶向疗法，抗体-药物偶联物和放射性药物已成为各种肿瘤的标准治疗方法。

Yet none are silver bullets, leaving room for young companies testing out new ideas, like Delphia Therapeutics, which launched on Thursday with $67 million in funding.

然而，没有一个是灵丹妙药，为像Delphia Therapeutics这样的年轻公司测试新想法留下了空间，Delphia Therapeutics于周四以6700万美元的资金推出。

“To get a different outcome for patients requires a different approach,” said Delphia co-founder and CEO Kevin Marks.

Delphia联合创始人兼首席执行官凯文·马克斯（KevinMarks）表示：“要为患者取得不同的结果，需要采取不同的方法。”

The company aims to pioneer an approach to targeted treatment it calls “activation lethality.” According to Marks, the method is “like a cousin” to synthetic lethality, another way of attacking tumors that’s drawn interest from large and small drugmakers in recent years.

该公司旨在开创一种被称为“激活致死率”的靶向治疗方法。据Marks称，该方法与合成致死率“类似”，这是近年来吸引大小制药商兴趣的另一种攻击肿瘤的方法。

Drugs built around synthetic lethality disrupt genes important to a cancer cell’s survival. For example, so-called PARP inhibitors, like AstraZeneca and Merck & Co.’s Lynparza, interfere with PARP enzymes, shutting off a mechanism certain tumors use to repair DNA.

围绕合成致死率构建的药物破坏了对癌细胞存活至关重要的基因。例如，阿斯利康（AstraZeneca）和默克公司（Merck＆Co.）的Lynparza等所谓的PARP抑制剂会干扰PARP酶，从而关闭某些肿瘤用于修复DNA的机制。

Similarly, most other targeted therapies stifle the effects of mutations that drive tumor growth in one way or another.

同样，大多数其他靶向治疗都会抑制以某种方式驱动肿瘤生长的突变的影响。

Activation lethality medicines, by contrast, are supposed to selectively supercharge, or overactivate, certain cancer-linked cell signaling to the point tumor cells can’t survive. Marks likens the concept to slamming the gas pedal of a car that’s already speeding out of control.

相比之下，激活致死药物应该选择性地增强或过度激活某些与癌症相关的细胞信号，直到肿瘤细胞无法存活。Marks将这个概念比作猛击已经失控的汽车的油门踏板。

“In a cancer, that engine is revving just about as high as it can,” Marks said. “If you push it to rev even more, it overheats the engine and stalls out the car completely.”

马克斯说：“在癌症患者中，发动机的转速几乎是尽可能高。”。“如果你把它推到更高的转速，它会使发动机过热，使汽车完全熄火。”

Delphia’s approach is based on research conducted by a team led by Bill Sellers, director of the cancer program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The company says activation lethality represents a new way to counteract drug resistance.

Delphia的方法是基于由麻省理工学院和哈佛大学布罗德研究所癌症项目主任比尔·塞勒斯领导的团队进行的研究。该公司表示，激活致死率代表了一种抵消耐药性的新方法。

“We'll have a fundamentally different challenge for cancers to try to evolve and escape from,” said Marks, who previously oversaw cancer drug discovery at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research along with Mike Dillon, one of Delphia’s other co-founders.

马克斯说：“我们将面临一个根本不同的挑战，癌症将试图进化和逃避。”马克斯之前曾与德尔菲的另一位联合创始人迈克·狄龙（MikeDillon）一起在诺华生物医学研究所（NovartisInstituteforBiomedical Research）负责癌症药物的发现。

Delphia hasn’t disclosed which targets it’s going after, but Marks said the funding should get the company to the “doorstep” of its first clinical trials.

Delphia尚未透露其追求的目标，但Marks表示，这笔资金应能使该公司进入首次临床试验的“门槛”。

Delphia takes its name from Greek history. Etched on the walls of the temple of Apollo in the city of Delphi was the phrase “nothing in excess,” a concept the biotech is applying to cancer therapy.

Delphia得名于希腊历史。德尔菲市阿波罗神庙的墙上刻着“无过量”的字样，这是生物技术应用于癌症治疗的概念。

The company’s Series A round was led by GV, Nextech Invest, Polaris Innovation Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments.

该公司的A轮融资由GV、Nextech Invest、Polaris Innovation Fund和Alexandria Venture Investments牵头。

Marks, an entrepreneur-in-residence at GV since 2022, said the company “smoothly sailed through” what’s been a tough financing environment for biotech startups.

自2022年以来一直在GV任职的企业家马克（Marks）表示，该公司“顺利度过”了生物技术初创公司艰难的融资环境。

“[The investors] saw the almost month-over-month the progress we're making, these new targets and this new field catching fire,” he said.

他说：“（投资者）看到了我们几乎一个月比一个月取得的进展，这些新目标和这个新领域正在着火。”

“Delphia’s activation lethality platform is one of the most innovative approaches in cancer drug development and offers an excellent foundation to build a differentiated oncology company,” David Schenkein, the former Agios Pharmaceuticals CEO and now co-lead of GV's life science investment team, said in a statement..

“Delphia的激活致死性平台是癌症药物开发中最具创新性的方法之一，为建立一家差异化的肿瘤公司提供了良好的基础，”前Agios Pharmaceuticals首席执行官，现任GV生命科学投资团队的联合领导者David Schenkein在一份声明中表示。