Aprea Therapeutics

Aprea Therapeutics Inc., (NASDAQ: APRE) is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with research facilities in Stockholm, Sweden, focused on developing and commercializing novel cancer therapeutics to reactivate the mutant tumor suppressor protein p53, the most commonly mutated gene in cancer. Since its discovery in 1979, p53 has been extensively studied due to its central role as the body’s first line of defense against cancer. p53 links together multiple pathways that patrol the cell for DNA damage and cellular stresses. When DNA damage is detected, and when oxidative or other cellular stresses exceed thresholds for normal cellular function, p53 activates critical genes that prevent propagation of cancerous cells. Some of these apply the brakes on cell division in a process call cell cycle arrest.