Natural Sciences Active Updated Aug 27, 2026
Can drugs finally hit the proteins once called undruggable?
The undruggable protein problem
Where it stands as of Sep 4, 2026
The FDA approved daraxonrasib, sold as Rasonque, for advanced pancreatic cancer in August after a trial found patients lived a median of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months on standard chemotherapy. It works around KRAS, the gene behind more than 90 percent of pancreatic tumors and long thought too smooth a surface for any drug to grip, by binding a molecule called cyclophilin A. Whether tumors develop resistance to it the way they do to chemotherapy is not yet known.
More than 90 percent of pancreatic tumors are driven by a mutated KRAS gene long considered too smooth a surface for any drug to grip. The FDA approved daraxonrasib, which works around KRAS indirectly through a molecule called cyclophilin A, after a trial showed median survival nearly double that of standard chemotherapy. The stakes are whether tumors develop resistance to the new drug the way they do to chemotherapy, and whether the approach opens KRAS-driven cancers more broadly to treatment.
The story so far
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Aug 27, 2026 Latest
The FDA approved daraxonrasib, sold as Rasonque, for advanced pancreatic cancer on August 26 after a trial found patients lived a median of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months on standard chemotherapy, with the drug binding cyclophilin A to shut down the KRAS protein that drives more than 90 percent of pancreatic tumors.
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Aug 1, 2026
The Conversation reported that a synthetic molecule called SK-129, built to bind several parts of the protein alpha-synuclein and hold it in a shape resistant to clumping, blocked the clumping and spreading of the protein and reduced disease symptoms in mice, particularly when it targeted the earliest, most dangerous clumps before they grew.
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Jul 29, 2026
New Scientist reported the approval this year of the first protac drug, a class that destroys disease-causing proteins by tagging them for the cell's disposal system instead of simply blocking them, opening treatment options for proteins previously considered undruggable.
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