Tract Bio Announces Presentations at Two AACR Conferences

Upcoming poster presentation at AACR D3 features data supporting TP101 as a therapeutic strategy to target drug-resistant cancer stem cells

Presented poster at AACR Special Conference on Breaking Barriers in the Fight Against Rare Cancers demonstrates the potential of functional screening to identify synthetic lethal combinations against drug-resistant populations in ovarian cancer

BOSTON, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Tract Bio ("Tract"), a biotechnology company discovering and developing novel therapies for cancer and inflammatory disease, today announced presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research Drug Discovery and Development (AACR D3) conference and the AACR Special Conference on Breaking Barriers in the Fight Against Rare Cancers.

Tract is advancing complementary approaches aimed at the drug-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) that survive treatment and drive disease progression. The stemECHO™ platform selectively clones CSCs while preserving genomic and epigenomic fidelity, enabling functional screening to identify the drugs that eliminate them in an individual patient; TP101 is a small molecule therapeutic candidate that has been tested against these cells directly.

"Cancer stem cells drive tumor progression and therapeutic resistance yet have been difficult to eliminate selectively. Our functional precision medicine approach has the potential to find these cells and the drugs that eliminate them in an individual patient with ovarian cancer, and TP101 demonstrates how we can develop therapeutics against them directly while preserving normal stem cells," said Dr. Frank McKeon, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Tract Bio. "We are encouraged by the TP101 data which we believe support its potential as a new treatment approach for Barrett's esophagus, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and high-grade epithelial malignancies, and we are continuing to advance toward an IND submission."

AACR Drug Discovery and Development (AACR D3): July 21-24, 2026; Boston, MA

The poster presentation highlights TP101, a first-in-class small molecule therapeutic that combines a proprietary bivalent IAP antagonist and the tyroskine kinase inhibitor ponatinib to selectively eliminate CSCs across epithelial solid tumors while sparing healthy epithelial stem cells. The dual small molecule combination killed CSCs in vitro with low nanomolar potency, robust caspase 3 activation, and marked sparing of normal esophageal stem cells in Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). In mouse xenografts, TP101 drove near-complete tumor regression of EAC and depletion of tumor-associated fibroblasts. Together, these data support TP101 as a therapeutic strategy to potently and selectively eliminate malignant stem cells while targeting tumor supportive stroma and broadening the therapeutic window.

Presentation details are as follows:

• Title: TP101: First-in-class cancer stem cell–targeted small molecule combination therapy for epithelial malignancies
• Presenters: Cody C. McHale, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of Tract Bio; Souneek Chakraborty, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Biology of Tract Bio
• Session Date and Time: Poster #A078, Session A – Wednesday, July 22, 2026, 6:15-8:45 p.m. ET
• Venue: Sheraton Boston Hotel, Back Bay Ballroom

AACR Special Conference on Breaking Barriers in the Fight Against Rare Cancers: July 18-20, 2026; Vancouver, British Columbia

The second poster highlights a functional precision medicine approach in high-grade serous ovarian cancer, leveraging the Company's stemECHO™ platform to clone cancer stem cells from individual patient specimens. Tract researchers identified a polyresistant population in every case examined, then screened those cells against hundreds of approved and investigational drugs to find combinations that eliminated them at low nanomolar concentrations in vitro and showed activity in xenograft models derived from the polyresistant clones. This approach has the potential to deliver patient-specific drug sensitivity profiles to a multidisciplinary Functional Precision Medicine Tumor Board within 14 to 28 days of biopsy receipt.

• Title: Functional precision medicine targeting polyresistant cancer stem cells in high-grade serous ovarian cancer
• Presenters: Wa Xian, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Tract Bio; Yen-hsiang "Johnson" Huang, Senior Bioinformatics Scientist of Tract Bio
• Session Date and Time: Poster #A030, Session A – Saturday, July 18, 2026, 7:30-9:30 p.m. PDT
• Venue: JW Marriott Parq Vancouver Hotel, Vancouver, BC, Canada

About Tract Bio
Tract Bio is a biotechnology company discovering and developing novel therapies to transform the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease. The Company's proprietary line of FAP-activated peptide drug conjugates (PDCs) uses advanced targeting technology to potentially enhance the safety and efficacy of cancer therapeutics. Tract is leveraging both its FAP PDC platform and its breakthrough stem cell discovery platform, stemECHO™, to transform the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. stemECHO™ allows for reliable, high-volume generation of pure stem cell libraries in their ground-state while preserving the functional, genetic and epigenetic integrity of the original stem cell. Tract Bio is advancing TP-101, a first-in-class drug combination identified using stemECHO™ that is designed to potently and selectively eliminate cancer stem cells while sparing normal stem cells.

Contacts:
Investors/Media
Argot Partners
[email protected]

SOURCE Tract Bio