Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa
Neurosurgeon-Scientist · Co-Founder
Neuro-Oncology · Preclinical
Glioblastoma comes back because something survives. We built a drug for it.
Dome Therapeutics is developing a nanomedicine aimed at the brain cancer stem cells left behind after surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Those cells are what regrow the tumor.
No approved therapy is designed to clear them. The program is in preclinical development, moving toward IND-enabling studies.
- Stage
- Preclinical validation
- Next milestone
- IND-enabling studies
- Origin
- Research by founders at Johns Hopkins
01 / The Need
Standard of care buys time. It doesn't stop recurrence.
Almost every glioblastoma patient relapses. Surgery removes what can be seen. Radiation and temozolomide handle much of what's left.
The tumor still comes back, usually within a year, often within centimeters of where it started.
The reason is a small population of brain cancer stem cells that persists through treatment. They are quiescent, they repair DNA damage efficiently, and they sit behind an intact blood-brain barrier. Clear them and recurrence loses its source.
No approved therapy is designed to clear them. That's the gap we work on.
- 01
Tumor
Glioblastoma presents as a diffuse, infiltrative mass.
- 02
Surgery
Resection removes the bulk of what can be seen and reached.
- 03
Residual stem cells
A treatment-resistant stem-like population persists in the margin.
- 04
Recurrence
Those cells repopulate the tumor, usually within about a year.
- 05
Dome's approach
Nanoparticles carry a payload across the barrier to the remaining cells.
$0
Approximate per-patient lifetime cost of treatment
0 mo
Median survival after diagnosis under standard of care
0%
Approximate five-year survival rate
0+
Patients diagnosed with glioblastoma each year in the U.S.
Figures are approximations drawn from published registry and clinical literature. See scientific references.
02 / The Science
A nanomedicine built for the cells that restart the tumor.
Most glioblastoma drugs are tested against bulk tumor cells. Ours was designed against the stem-like population instead, and the delivery vehicle was engineered alongside the payload rather than bolted on afterward.
Work to date is preclinical. The near-term focus is formulation, potency, and the toxicology package required for IND-enabling studies.
- 01
Find the cells that matter
Brain cancer stem cells are what current treatment leaves behind. They are the population that restarts the tumor.
- 02
Find what kills them
We mapped the molecular dependencies these cells rely on, then narrowed them to the ones a drug can actually exploit.
- 03
Build the payload
A therapeutic designed against those dependencies, not borrowed from a chemotherapy regimen built for bulk tumor.
- 04
Solve delivery
A nanoparticle platform that carries the payload across the blood-brain barrier and releases it where the cells are.
The platform is designed with the potential to deliver additional therapeutic payloads to the brain. Glioblastoma is where we start.
More on the platform03 / Our Platform
Started in a research lab, and in an operating room.
One founder spent years treating glioblastoma in the operating room, while another spent those same years engineering biodegradable nanoparticles capable of delivering therapeutic payloads into cells. Their work converged to form Dome Therapeutics.
The near-term goal is a therapy that meaningfully delays or prevents glioblastoma recurrence. The longer-term goal is a delivery platform other brain diseases can use.
Our founders conduct their academic research at Johns Hopkins. Dome Therapeutics is an independent company, and its work is not endorsed by Johns Hopkins University or Johns Hopkins Medicine.
We also support the Mission:Brain Foundation, a non-profit that brings neurosurgical care to regions where it isn't otherwise available.
04 / The Team
Clinical, engineering, and strategic leadership.
Contact
Partner with us on glioblastoma.
We're building the next generation of nanomedicine for brain disease and welcome conversations with investors, collaborators, clinicians, and research partners.
We are not able to provide medical advice to patients or families, and cannot comment on individual cases. Please speak with your treating physician about treatment options.