Synthekine engineers modified cytokines, cytokine-enhanced cell therapies and surrogate cytokine agonists to improve efficacy while avoiding cytokine-associated toxicities. Its lead program, the alpha/beta-biased IL-2 partial agonist STK-012, is in a Phase 1 clinical trial. The company is advancing an orthogonal IL-2 plus CD19 CAR-T combination (STK-009 + SYNCAR-001) toward clinical studies anticipated to begin early this year, and is pursuing an orthogonal IL-2 system with a GPC3 CAR-T therapy for solid tumors. An IL-12 partial agonist program is in IND-enabling studies, with preclinical data showing potent anti-tumor efficacy while avoiding systemic toxicity in mouse models. Synthekine applies multiple cytokine engineering platforms and has secured a pharmaceutical partnership with Merck to support its pipeline progression. Synthekine is an engineered cytokine therapeutics company based in Menlo Park, Calif., that uses cytokine partial agonism and immunological specificity to design differentiated, disease-optimized medicines. Its lead programs are a selective IL-2 partial agonist, STK-012, and an orthogonal IL-2 and CD19 CAR‑T system comprising STK-009 and SYNCAR-001. Preclinical data presented at AACR and ASH showed STK-012 induced potent anti-tumor activity while avoiding toxicities such as vascular leak syndrome, and STK-009 expanded SYNCAR-001 in vivo to deepen and prolong responses. The company is advancing additional cytokine partial agonists and licensed IL-10, IL-12 and IL-22 programs from Stanford in April 2021. Synthekine is also developing a proprietary synthekine platform that uses surrogate VHH agonists to dimerize cytokine receptors and elicit biased signaling, building modular libraries for oncology, immunology, and inflammation applications. Proceeds from its recent financing are intended to generate clinical proof-of-concept data for lead programs and move preclinical programs and the platform toward clinical investigation. Synthekine combines immunology, structural biology insights and multiple engineering technologies to create optimized cytokine therapeutics against new and validated cytokine targets for cancer and autoimmune disorders. The company was founded by K. Christopher Garcia and has licensed several cytokine programs and platforms from Stanford University. Its lead programs include STK-012, an engineered IL-2 partial agonist, and the STK-009/SYNCAR-001 orthogonal IL-2 ligand plus CD19 CAR-T combination; both are in IND-enabling development. Synthekine's synthekine platform is a combinatorial engineering approach to generate surrogate cytokine agonists that drive new signaling activities across cytokine receptor families. Proceeds from its recent financing will be used to advance lead programs into clinical studies, expand the discovery pipeline, and refine its proprietary cytokine engineering platforms. The company's lead programs have shown activity and promising tolerability in preclinical studies, and it anticipated filing INDs for STK-012 and the STK-009/SYNCAR-001 combination in 2021.

Total raised

$290M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Jan 2023