Watertown Journal Club - Posterpalooza
Two big conferences last month generated a flurry of posters from Watertown biotechs
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Watertown Bio Journal Club is a monthly publication highlighting the scientific research produced by labs in Watertown. If you’re a Watertown-based biotech and have a recently published article, pre-print, or conference publication you would like featured in our next issue, reach out at newsletter@watertown.bio. If you enjoy our publications consider supporting us.
Last month, a number of Watertown companies presented posters and presentation at two major conferences, the American Association for Cancer Research Annual meeting (AACR), and Immunology 2026. This month’s journal club is a round up of the companies that presented.
AACR
Foghorn Therapeutics, headquartered at 99 Coolidge Ave, gave two presentations. The first presentation focused on the development of protein degraders targeting ARID1B and SMARCA2. Their hypothesis is that in cancer cells with mutations that make ARID1A or SMARCA4 non-functional, ARID1B and SMARCA2 degradation would kill the cells, while in healthy cells the normal would ARID1A and SMARCA2 proteins would compensate for the loss of ARID1B and SMARCA2. They also presented a poster focusing on their ARID1A work. The second presentation focused on the engineering of a degrader that specifically targets the protein EP300 without cross-reacting with the protein CBP, preventing a reduction in platelet count that stymied previous efforts to develop a EP300 targeting compound. Building on this work, they presented posters that started with a dual CBP/EP300 dual degrader and chronicled their efforts to design a CPB or EP300 selective degrader.
Acrivon Therapeutics, headquartered at 480 Arsenal Way, presented three posters. The first two posters explored combination therapies for Acrivon’s CHK1/2 checkpoint kinase inhibitor, first in combination with an anti-PD-L1 therapy as then with an antibody drug conjugate topoisomerase inhibitor. Their third poster characterized the preclinical development of ACR-2316, a WEE1 and PKMYT1 checkpoint inhibitor.
Commentary: while they did not present at AACR, The CSO of Arsenal Yards-based Mariana Oncology gave their takeaways from AACR.
IMMUNOLOGY2026
Enanta Therapeutics, headquartered at the Arsenal on the Charles, gave four posters characterizing their new STAT6 inhibitor EPS-3903. The first poster described the discovery and characterization of EPS-3903, while subsequent posters explored the pharmacokinetics, in vivo tolerability, and functionality in mouse models of asthma. All of these data are being collected to advance an IND-filing for EPS-3903 later this year. Enanta will be presenting more data on EPS-3903 later this month at American Thoracic Society Meeting.
Keeping an eye on the STAT6 Competition: Enanta’s Arsenal on the Charles neighbor Kymera Therapeutics recently presented phase 1b clinical trial data of their STAT6 degrader KT-621. This specific study was looking at the tolerability and safety of KT-621 in patients with with atopic dermatitis (eczema).
Enanta also separately gave a presentation and a poster at ESCMID Global on recent clinical trial results of Zelicapavir, their RSV anti-viral drug, in studies focusing on children and high-risk adults.
That’s the major science news from last month. We’ll be back with the latest News RoundUp next Tuesday.
