Lassogen is developing a new class of peptide therapeutics based on lasso peptides to address diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, pain, and inflammation. Lasso peptides form a unique lariat structure that makes them highly stable to proteases, low pH, and high temperatures while presenting a three‑dimensional array of amino acid side chains for high affinity and selectivity. Naturally occurring lasso peptides are diverse in size, shape, and composition, providing tunable, modular scaffolds for designing optimized therapeutics. The company plans to use its recent seed proceeds to achieve key results that demonstrate the utility and promise of lasso peptides and to advance optimized candidates using in silico modeling, synthetic biology, and molecular evolution. Financially, Lassogen raised $4.5 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Playground Global; combined with a 2019 pre‑seed the company has raised $5.1 million to date. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in San Diego, Lassogen is led by CEO Mark Burk with co-founder Kent Boles and academic co‑founders and advisors Douglas Mitchell and Tracy Handel; Phyllis Whiteley of Playground Global will join the board.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Oct 2020