Blacksmith Medicines Announces Presentation at AACR Annual Meeting 2026

SAN DIEGO, April 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Blacksmith Medicines, Inc. (Blacksmith), a leading biopharma dedicated to discovering and developing therapeutics targeting metalloenzymes, today announced the company will present data on its oncology program targeting flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1), a structure-specific metallonuclease that cleaves 5' DNA flaps during replication and repair, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2026, taking place April 17-22 at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA.

Details of the poster presentation are as follows:

Abstract Number: 234
Title: "Proteomic profiling of FEN1 inhibition by BSM-1516 reveals chromatin-associated biomarkers for preclinical pharmacodynamic evaluation"
Session Title: DNA Damage and Repair 1
Session Date and Time: Sunday April 19, 2026 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Poster Section 11
Poster Board Number: 5

The abstract is now available on the conference website at AACR Annual Meeting 2026.

About FEN1
Flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) is a structure-specific di-magnesium metallonuclease that cleaves 5' DNA flaps during replication and repair. FEN1 is an attractive target for development of anticancer therapeutics because it is overexpressed in many tumor types and has a large number of synthetic lethality partners including genes in Homologous Recombination (HR) pathway.

About metalloenzymes and the Blacksmith platform
Metalloenzymes rely on metal ion cofactors within their active sites to perform critical biological functions. Historically, these targets have been challenging to drug due to limitations in small-molecule chemistry. The Blacksmith platform addresses these challenges through: 

• A proprietary fragment library of metal-binding pharmacophores (MBPs);
• A comprehensive database mapping metalloenzyme functions, metal cofactors, and disease associations;
• A unique metallo-CRISPR library of custom single guide RNAs;
• An advanced computational toolkit for docking, modeling, and structure-based drug design;
• A robust intellectual property portfolio spanning bioinorganic, medicinal, and computational chemistry for metalloenzyme-targeted therapeutics

About Blacksmith Medicines 
Blacksmith Medicines is pioneering the development of therapeutics targeting metal-dependent enzymes, a class that represents over 30% of all known enzymes across major categories, including oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases, and ligases. These enzymes rely on essential metal ions—such as magnesium, zinc, iron, manganese, and copper—for catalytic activity. Historically, metalloenzymes have been difficult to drug due to limitations in small-molecule chemistry.

Blacksmith's purpose-built platform overcomes these challenges by integrating a proprietary library of metal-binding pharmacophores with advanced computational modeling to design small-molecule inhibitors that precisely engage metal ions within enzyme active sites. This approach enables the rapid, predictable development of potent and selective inhibitors.

The company has established strategic collaborations with Basilea Pharmaceutica International Ltd., Cyteir Therapeutics Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and Zoetis LLC, and secured non-dilutive funding from CARB-X and NIH/NIAID. Blacksmith's investors include Lilly, Evotec A.G., MP Healthcare Partners, MagnaSci Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments.

For more information, visit www.BlacksmithMedicines.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Amy Conrad
Juniper Point
[email protected]
858-366-3243

SOURCE Blacksmith Medicines