Northwestern University researchers reported HYDRACs—heterobifunctional proteomimetic polymers (protein‑like polymers)—that bind oncogenic proteins MYC and KRAS and recruit cellular degradation machinery, producing selective target depletion in cell lines and tumor suppression in mice; the work was published in Nature Communications. HYDRACs combine multiple target‑recognition peptides and degron motifs within a single polymer backbone, enabling engagement of disordered or pocketless proteins that resist small‑molecule binding. In vitro, HYDRACs degraded MYC and KRAS across multiple cancer cell lines, downregulating oncogenic transcriptional programs and inducing cell death; in vivo, polymers accumulated in tumors and reduced proliferation. The approach sidesteps the need for well‑defined ligandable pockets and represents a synthetic, polymer‑based analogue to targeted protein degradation strategies. The study presents a modular chemical platform to expand the degradable proteome beyond conventional small‑molecule PROTACs, though translation will require work on delivery, pharmacokinetics and safety profiling for polymeric degradation agents.