With an initial €8 million (US$8.4 million) in seed funding in the bank, Tessellate Bio has emerged from stealth to tackle cancers that rely on the less well explored synthetic lethality mechanism of alternative lengthening of telomeres.
Launching a company based on knowledge that “the fundamental principle that most people hold to be true is off by a trillion” is a rare opportunity, said Jake Rubens, co-founder and president of Quotient Therapeutics Inc., a company that emerged from stealth this week, backed by two years of platform development and a $50 million investment from Flagship Pioneering.
Etcembly emerged from stealth mode in August with something it regards as seemingly impossible: A machine learning platform that has the ability to predict and engineer – at never-seen-before scale and speed – T-cell receptors (TCR) that enable bispecific T-cell engager antibodies targeting cancer cells to be produced.
Newco T-Therapeutics Ltd. has raised £48 million (US$59 million) in a series A to advance development of T-cell receptors generated by its transgenic mouse platform for the treatment of solid tumors, autoimmune diseases and infections. In cancer, the specificity of T-Therapeutics’ molecules will overcome shortcomings of immuno-oncology drugs such as checkpoint inhibitors that stimulate a response to some cancer neo-antigens but are unable to recognize cancer-specific self-antigens.
Biolexis Therapeutics Inc. has reported the launch of Metabolexis, a new pipeline company developing three targeted oral small molecules for the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Fledgling biotechnology company Automera has launched in Singapore with $16 million in series A funding to develop its autophagy-targeting chimera small molecules (AUTACs) platform technology. Automera co-founder and chief technology officer Loong Wang told BioWorld that he and his business partner, Taiyang Zhang, decided to move into the biotechnology space in 2021.
Arialys Therapeutics Inc. launched this month with $58 million in seed funding, an experimental compound it is developing for autoimmune encephalitis and autoimmune psychosis, and high aspirations for its field. “Yes, I want to treat these patients, I want these patients to have a better life. But I also want drug discovery and development folks to think differently about discovering new drugs for the CNS,” Jay Lichter told BioWorld.
“From one to many” is how Actio Biosciences Inc. describes its approach to drug development. The firm emerged with a $55 million series A financing and an eye for biological targets found in both rare and common diseases, starting with TRPV4, a target associated with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2C and other bone diseases.
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, represents a relatively new class of therapeutics with the potential to prevent and treat a wide range of diseases. A well-known success story is of the mRNA vaccines that controlled the COVID-19 pandemic, which has fueled enthusiasm for the field. But biotechs are also developing mRNA candidates for several other infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, as well for cancer, autoimmune and allergic diseases. However, delivering nucleic acid therapeutics can be challenging, since mRNA cannot get into cells on its own.
CCM Biosciences Inc. has launched with a focus on discovering and developing novel drugs, including small molecules, gene therapies, biologics and nanomedicines, and companion diagnostic tests.
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