Participated · Series B · Oct 2021

Exo Therapeutics is a small-molecule drug discovery and development company leveraging its proprietary ExoSight platform to discover compounds that bind exosites—distal, unique binding pockets that can reprogram enzyme activity. The company is building a deep pipeline of drug candidates intended to provide greater selectivity, improved therapeutic windows, and fewer side effects compared with active-site or allosteric modulators. Initial programs focus on oncology and inflammation, with four initial programs referenced by the company. Exo plans to advance those therapeutic candidates toward proof-of-concept and into the clinic. Proceeds from the recent financing will also be used to expand the company’s pursuit of new targets using the ExoSight platform. Exo cites foundational work by professors David Liu and Alan Saghatelian and former student Juan Pablo Maianti as underpinning its approach and is strengthening its governance with new board additions. Exo Therapeutics develops small-molecule drugs that bind exosites — distal, unique pockets that can reprogram enzyme activity — using its proprietary ExoSight platform. ExoSight combines structural and computational biology, protein engineering, and DNA-encoded libraries to discover and optimize exosite-targeting compounds. Focusing on exosites aims to avoid competitive binding and off-target activity associated with active-site and allosteric modulators, potentially improving therapeutic windows, selectivity, and side-effect profiles. The company is advancing an initial pipeline of programs focused on oncology and inflammation and expects to discover exosites across many disease-causing pathways. Exo closed a $25 million Series A and will use proceeds to advance therapeutic candidates toward proof-of-concept and into the clinic. The company is based in Cambridge, Mass., and has assembled a scientific advisory board and leadership drawing on foundational research from Professors David Liu and Alan Saghatelian.

Participated · Series A · May 2021

Engine Biosciences combines machine learning-enabled network biology and high-throughput combinatorial genetics to discover precision oncology targets, biomarkers, and drug candidates. Its proprietary platforms, NetMAPPR and CombiGEM, integrate proprietary functional genomics, clinical data and AI-enhanced literature mining to map disease networks and validate findings. Engine has identified over thirty previously unidentified precision medicine opportunities and advanced multiple internal programs, including ENB-812, which originated from Engine’s discovery of PKMYT1 as a synthetic lethal target. The company reports biomarkers that can sensitize tumors up to 100-fold to specific investigational drugs and holds an extensive patent portfolio. With teams in Singapore and Silicon Valley, Engine is advancing its pipeline toward the clinic through internal development, collaborations, and partnerships. The new financing is intended to further progress biomarker and target discoveries into clinical translation. Engine Biosciences develops a platform that integrates machine learning, high-throughput biological experimentation, combinatorial genetics, and chemistry to uncover critical gene interactions for drug discovery. Its core technologies are NetMAPPR, a searchable biology platform for predicting gene combinations and targets, and CombiGEM, a combinatorial CRISPR system for experimentally testing hundreds of thousands of gene interactions. Engine uses iterative predict-test-learn cycles to prioritize high-ranking genes and translate findings into drug discovery and chemistry efforts. The company has advanced novel biology findings into proprietary small-molecule inhibitors and a growing pipeline of targeted therapies for genetically defined patient populations in liver, ovarian, colorectal, and breast cancers. Engine plans to expand its precision oncology portfolio, prepare for its first clinical programs, and scale its proprietary technology platform. Financially, the company recently closed a $43M Series A and has raised $53M to date, including a $10M seed round in 2018. Engine Biosciences is advancing a data-driven drug discovery platform that combines massively parallel biological experimentation with artificial intelligence to discover and develop therapies. The company applies its technology across four areas: drug repositioning, new target discovery, precision medicine enablement, and pathway analysis. Engine reports proof of concept across various disease indications and cell types and has active programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, autoimmune, and skin. The company plans to use the seed funding to build its drug discovery platform, expand its scientific and executive teams in Singapore and San Francisco, and pursue preclinical studies internally and with partners. Scientific leadership includes Co-Founder and CEO Jeffrey Lu and scientific founders/academic leaders Timothy Lu, Hu Li, Prashant Mali, and Jim Collins.

Participated · Series C · Mar 2021

FogPharma leverages its Helicon peptide platform to design stabilized helical peptides capable of efficient cell entry and modulation of intracellular targets. Its lead program, FOG-001, is a first-in-class TCF-blocking β-catenin inhibitor currently in a Phase 1/2 study in patients with advanced solid tumors, including colorectal cancer. The company uses custom-built computational physics and machine learning/AI methods to drive discovery across previously undruggable intracellular targets. The recent financing will accelerate the Helicon portfolio, deepen data science capabilities, and strengthen the core therapeutics platform. FogPharma has expanded its leadership team with industry veterans in clinical, commercial, and data science roles to support development and potential commercialization. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., and has raised more than $500 million to date. FogPharma is a biopharmaceutical company developing Helicon™ hyperstabilized α‑helical polypeptide therapeutics intended to reach targets considered undruggable. Its discovery engine integrates directed evolution, proprietary α‑helix conformational hyperstabilization chemistry, highly multiplexed optimization, AI and structure‑based drug discovery to generate polypeptides that combine antibody‑like specificity with small‑molecule tissue distribution and intracellular engagement. The company’s lead candidate, FOG‑001, is a first‑and‑only‑in‑class direct TCF‑blocking β‑catenin inhibitor expected to enter clinical development in mid‑2023, and FogPharma is advancing additional programs against TEAD, NRAS, Pan‑KRAS, ERG and Cyclin E1. Proceeds from the Series D financing will be used to advance and accelerate the Helicon pipeline and platform capabilities. FogPharma is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., was spun out of Harvard University by Dr. Gregory Verdine, and has raised more than $360 million to date. In connection with the financing the company added Rick Klausner to its board and appointed Dr. Verdine as board chair as it scales science, team and infrastructure. FogPharma develops Helicon™ peptides, a proprietary class of hyperstabilized α-helical peptides that combine the targeting strength and specificity of antibodies with the tissue distribution, intracellular engagement, and oral dosing optionality of small molecules. Its Helicon discovery engine integrates directed evolution, helix hyperstabilization chemistry, highly multiplexed optimization, artificial intelligence (deep learning and machine learning), structure-based drug discovery, and multiscale manufacturing. The company is advancing first-in-class programs toward clinical development with an explicit focus on targets considered previously undruggable and broad applicability across disease areas, especially cancer. Lead programs include a direct β-catenin antagonist that disrupts β-catenin/TCF interaction and a TEAD antagonist that blocks the YAP/TAZ–TEAD interface and binds the fully activated form of TEAD. FogPharma emphasizes making a wide range of targets druggable via its Universal Druggability™ platform. The company has raised substantial financing to support its clinical ambitions, including a recent Series C. FogPharma advances a broadly enabling new drug class of cell-penetrating miniproteins paired with a parallelized, on-demand drug discovery engine designed to access intracellular targets. The company’s platform is configured to deliver multiple new medicines rapidly, with the first clinical entry — a beta-catenin antagonist — targeted by the end of 2019. FogPharma was founded and is led by scientist-entrepreneur Dr. Gregory Verdine, who pioneered the cell-penetrating miniprotein approach. Its early therapeutic focus is on drugging major, intractable drivers of cancer and on pharmacological management of the immune response. The company has raised $77M to date following the Series B, and plans to advance several programs and expand its platform technology. Intended near-term programs include advancing the beta-catenin inhibitor (iCat) into Phase 2, clinical development of a Cbl-b inhibitor, a third program through IND-enabling studies, and development of three additional forms of cell-penetrating miniproteins.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2021

TScan Therapeutics discovers and develops TCR‑T cell therapies targeting shared, clinically‑derived antigens using a proprietary high‑throughput platform that also assesses off‑target TCR interactions. The company is advancing both hematologic and solid tumor programs, with lead liquid tumor programs TSC‑100 and TSC‑101 expected to enter clinical development in 2021. TScan plans to progress its first two TCR‑T assets into the clinic in 2021 and advance three additional programs into the clinic in 2022. For solid tumors it is advancing a multi‑TCR program and intends to nominate an initial set of three target candidates in 2021 with IND submissions to follow in 2022. The company has a strategic discovery partnership with Novartis from 2020 and is exploring use of its target discovery technology for infectious and autoimmune diseases. Prior to this financing the company had raised over $180 million to date; proceeds from the announced round will be used to advance the pipeline into the clinic. TScan designs therapies that reprogram a patient's own T cells to recognize and fight cancer using naturally occurring T-cell receptors (TCRs). Its technology scans TCRs against target antigens in a genome-wide, high-throughput, and unbiased fashion. The company has discovered novel antigens from TCRs, novel TCRs from known antigens, and previously uncharacterized off-targets of known TCRs. TScan is developing a portfolio of TCR therapies for patients with both liquid and solid tumors. With completion of the Series B, TScan has raised approximately $60 million in funding and says it is well positioned to discover novel tumor-reactive TCR targets and to develop TCR–target pairs across indications. The company states these resources will support its oncology development efforts.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

Kira Pharmaceuticals is developing a new generation of complement-targeted therapies to treat immune-mediated and complement-driven diseases. Its efforts are enabled by the LOGIC drug discovery platform. The company is committed to advancing first-in-class and best-in-class therapies to transform patients' lives. Kira announced $46M in investments secured to date. It is backed by a syndicate of global life science venture firms including Quan Capital, 6 Dimensions Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Sinopharm Capital. Frederick Beddingfield, MD, PhD, was appointed Chief Executive Officer.