A biotech startup’s lofty goal: Kill cancer with pills that target RNA instead of proteins
Arrakis has identified “hits” — oral drug-like compounds — that block the RNA machinery needed to make some well-known, cancer-causing proteins.
Arrakis Therapeutics is named for the desert planet in the legendary “Dune” series of science-fiction novels. It’s an apt name because the Waltham, Mass., startup is trying to achieve a feat once thought to be biotech fantasy: Develop oral medicines — pills — that can target RNA, the messenger-like molecules that turn genetic instructions into proteins.
Scientists at Arrakis have devoted the past two years to building new computer
