Achilles Therapeutics’ mission is to develop next-generation, patient-specific therapies that harness the immune system to destroy cancer cells. The therapies will target truncal (also known as clonal) tumour neo-antigens, unique flags to the immune system present on the surface of every cancer cell. These truncal neo-antigens are created early in the cancer’s evolution and present on all cancer cells in an individual patient’s tumour but not on healthy cells, so could allow scientists to target and destroy tumours without harming healthy tissues.

Achilles Therapeutics brings together four scientific Founders with world leading expertise in the understanding of cancer evolution, bioinformatics and the development of immunotherapies.

The company is headquartered in London, UK and was launched in May 2016 with a financing round of £13.2m ($17.5m) led by Syncona with the Cancer Research Technology Pioneer Fund and the UCL Technology Fund.