Wee1 inhibitors are a promising new cancer treatment, but serious side effects threaten their adoption in the clinic.

Now, researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), the University of Oxford, and UCL have discovered a previously unknown role for Wee1 that could explain these effects.

The findings could realign the drugs’ clinical progress, helping to identify patients most likely to benefit from treatment and guiding the development of safer, more targeted therapies.