Pre-IND
Engineered to find the tumor. And spare the healthy brain.
GB13 is ready to move into patients. Everything is in place except the last step: delivering the drug to the hospitals that are waiting for it.
GB13 has not yet been given to patients. It is being prepared to enter clinical trials.
GB13 A targeted therapy for glioblastoma and DIPG
Why we started
Twenty-seven years, and three months.
“Despite the war on cancer, despite the human genome project, despite the millions dedicated to this disease, meaningful change is still elusive.”
Sil Lutkewitte · President, Targepeutics
His mother was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 1999. At the time, median survival was about twelve months. Twenty-seven years later, it is about fifteen.
That is the whole problem in one sentence. Not that nothing was tried, but that after everything that was tried, the line barely moved. Patients need more drugs in clinical trials, and doctors need effective tools that actually work.
Median Survival After a Glioblastoma Diagnosis
Standard of care · not a GB13 result
Twenty-seven years of research moved the median by about three months. The flatness of that line is the reason Targepeutics exists.
Figures describe standard-of-care outcomes for glioblastoma, not results for GB13. Source to be confirmed prior to publication.
Why children too
DIPG does not sit beside the brainstem. It grows through it.
That single distinction is why the tumor cannot be removed, and why families are so often told there is nothing left to try.
As the tumor infiltrates the brainstem, diffusing itself through the healthy cells, the activity of the brainstem shuts down. As it proliferates, each function the brainstem controls is impacted, and eventually fails.
- Sight
- Hearing
- Swallowing
- Speaking
- Use of limbs
- Breathing
- Heart rate
Recognized by the NIH, the NCI, and throughout the treating community. Describes DIPG under current standard of care, not results for GB13.
Lisa Ward · Co-founder, Tough2gether · DDRFA
Lisa Ward lost her son to DIPG. She has spent the years since building support for the families who come after them.
Research like this is the hope those families have been fighting for.
How it works
A key cut for one lock.
Most aggressive brain tumors, including glioblastoma and DIPG, carry a specific marker on their surface. Healthy brain cells largely do not. GB13 was engineered to recognize only that marker.
STEP 01
Find it
The tumor cell carries a marker on its surface. Healthy brain cells largely do not.
STEP 02
Pass over healthy tissue
It drifts past cells without the marker and locks onto the tumor.
STEP 03
Enter it
The cancer cell pulls GB13 inside itself.
STEP 04
Destroy it from the inside
It shuts down the cell's ability to make proteins, and the cell dies.
Find it.Enter it.Destroy it from the inside.
Preclinical study · animal model
And it is not just theory.
In preclinical studies, GB13 combined with radiation extended survival far beyond radiation alone.
Rechberger et al., 2026. Animal-model data. GB13 has not been administered to human patients, and these results do not predict outcomes in people.
- GB13 + radiation · all alive at 350 d
- GB13 alone · 225 d
- Radiation alone · 170 d
- Untreated · 109 d
Median survival in an animal model (Rechberger et al.). Days and medians are the reported values; the step shapes between events are illustrative. Radiation alone did not reach statistical significance against untreated.
What is left
$125,000
To store and distribute GB13 to the clinical sites, so treatment can begin.
The trials are designed. The physicians and hospitals are ready. The drug is already manufactured. What is left is one final step between a finished drug and the children and families who are waiting for it.
FDA rules for storing an investigational drug and shipping it to trial sites are strict, and the paperwork and handling they require account for most of this cost.
- Drug manufactured
- Trials designed
- Sites ready
- Store & distribute
Please join us.
Every contribution goes toward getting GB13 out of storage and into the hospitals that are ready to run the trials.
In partnership with
Music Beats Cancer, the fundraising platform hosting this campaign.
GB13 is an investigational therapy. It has not been approved by the FDA and has not been administered to human patients. It is being prepared to enter clinical trials. Nothing on this page is a claim of safety or effectiveness in people, and nothing here is medical advice.
Survival figures shown for glioblastoma and DIPG describe outcomes under current standard of care. They are not results for GB13. Preclinical data shown is from an animal model.
This page supports a fundraising campaign for Targepeutics, hosted on Music Beats Cancer and produced by WeTrials. It is not a recruitment notice, and it is not an offer to enroll in a clinical trial.
