# Delphia Therapeutics

> Delphia Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech pioneering a new field of cancer biology it calls activation lethality - the idea that cancer cells with oncogenic mutations live dangerously close to the upper limit of how much pathway activity they can tolerate, and can be pushed past it. Rather than blocking cancer signals like most drugs, Delphia designs targeted activators that overload cancer's stress pathways until the cell dies, aiming for durable benefit and a way around drug resistance. Founded in 2024 by Kevin Marks, Bill Sellers and Mike Dillon, it launched with a $67 million Series A led by GV, Nextech Invest, Polaris Innovation Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments.

- **Founded:** 2024
- **Headquarters:** Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- **Founders:** Kevin Marks (Co-Founder, President & CEO; formerly head of oncology drug discovery site at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research), Bill Sellers (Co-Founder & Board Member; Director of the cancer program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard), Mike Dillon (Co-Founder; former Chief Scientific Officer of IDEAYA Biosciences and former global head of discovery chemistry for oncology at Novartis)
- **Team size:** Approximately 27 employees
- **Products:** Activation Lethality Platform, Pipeline of targeted activators
- **Notable:** Launched in May 2024 with a $67M Series A from top-tier life-science investors, Defined and named a new field of cancer biology: activation lethality, Won the 'Boston Highlight' 2024 Award at the Biotech Week Boston Awards

## Products & services

- **Activation Lethality Platform** — A discovery platform that identifies targets where cancer cells, made hypersensitive by oncogenic mutations, can be pushed past the upper limit of tolerable pathway activity. By hyperactivating these 'last line of defense' nodes, the resulting overload on cellular stress pathways selectively kills tumor cells while sparing normal tissue and limiting resistance.
- **Pipeline of targeted activators** — A pipeline of first-in-class small-molecule cancer medicines in preclinical development. Specific targets are undisclosed; the company has described activation lethality through the WNT/beta-catenin pathway driving efficacy in colorectal cancer, presented at AACR-NCI-EORTC 2025.

## Achievements

- Launched in May 2024 with a $67M Series A from top-tier life-science investors
- Defined and named a new field of cancer biology: activation lethality
- Won the 'Boston Highlight' 2024 Award at the Biotech Week Boston Awards
- Named to BioSpace's Next Gen: Class of 2025
- Named to the Boston Business Journal's 2025 Best Places to Work
- Presented activation lethality data in colorectal cancer at AACR-NCI-EORTC 2025
- Appointed leading cancer expert Steve Kelsey, M.D. to its Board of Directors (Dec 2025)

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Appointed David P. Kerstein, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer.
- **2025-12** — Appointed leading cancer expert Steve Kelsey, M.D. to the Board of Directors.
- **2025-10** — Presented research at AACR-NCI-EORTC 2025 on WNT/beta-catenin pathway activation lethality in colorectal cancer.
- **2025-05** — Appointed Reza Mazhari, Ph.D. as Chief Business Officer.
- **2025-04** — Named to the Boston Business Journal's 2025 Best Places to Work.
- **2025-01** — Recognized in BioSpace's Next Gen: Class of 2025.

## Links

- Website: https://www.delphiatx.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphia-therapeutics

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/delphia-therapeutics
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-15