Participated · Series C · Jan 2024

Accent Therapeutics develops small-molecule precision cancer therapies focused on critical intracellular dependencies across multiple cancer types. Led by CEO Shakti Narayan, the company leverages expertise in RNA-modifying proteins (RMPs) and systematic mapping of the RMP space and adjacent high-value areas to guide drug discovery. Its two lead programs are a first-in-class DHX9 inhibitor and a potentially best-in-class KIF18A inhibitor. The DHX9 program targets indications with high unmet need including BRCA loss-of-function cancers (breast, ovarian), mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancers (colorectal, endometrial, gastric) and additional undisclosed types. The KIF18A program could benefit patient populations across several indications including ovarian cancer and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The company plans to use the newly raised capital to advance both lead programs through early clinical development, including safety, pharmacokinetics and early efficacy studies. Accent Therapeutics develops oncology-focused small-molecule therapies that target RNA-modifying proteins (RMPs), an emerging field of post-transcriptional biology. Its lead programs are METTL3, an RNA methyltransferase implicated in AML, specific solid tumors and immuno-oncology, and ADAR1, an RNA editor with validation in subsets of solid tumors with elevated Type I interferon-stimulated gene signaling. The company applies enzyme-directed small-molecule approaches to RMPs to modulate RNA pathobiology. Since launching in 2018, Accent has advanced a broad pipeline of programs and aims to continue expanding in the RNA modification target space. Accent completed a $63 million Series B to advance its lead programs and broaden its pipeline. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance development of METTL3 and ADAR1 and to continue pipeline expansion. Accent Therapeutics focuses on developing oncology-directed small-molecule therapies in the emerging field of epitranscriptomics, targeting RNA-modifying proteins (RMPs). The company aims to create a discovery platform and a pipeline of therapeutic candidates against RMPs linked to specific cancers. Accent raised $40 million in Series A capital to establish that discovery platform and advance its pipeline. Its leadership includes experienced drug developers and founders Howard Y. Chang (Stanford), Chuan He (University of Chicago) and Robert A. Copeland, who bring expertise in epitranscriptomics and drug discovery. The team has published a peer-reviewed overview of RMPs as anticancer drug targets in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Accent positions its programs to precisely target cancers that are uniquely dependent on particular RMPs.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2022

Vicinitas Therapeutics is a biotechnology company commercializing a proprietary Deubiquitinase Targeting Chimera (DUBTAC) platform to stabilize aberrantly degraded proteins. Its core program uses bifunctional small molecules that recruit a deubiquitinase to remove ubiquitin chains and prevent target protein degradation. The company exclusively licensed the DUBTAC platform from UC Berkeley and Novartis and was spun out from that academic‑industry collaboration. A landmark study published in Nature Chemical Biology demonstrated covalent OTUB1 recruiters linked to target ligands can stabilize proteins including mutated CFTR and the tumor suppressor WEE1. Vicinitas is initially focused on developing therapies in oncology and monogenic disorders and aims to lead the targeted protein stabilization field. The company is based in South San Francisco and has assembled academic and industry leaders on its team and scientific advisory board. Financially, Vicinitas launched with a $65 million Series A to advance its pipeline.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2021

Immunitas Therapeutics is a Waltham, MA-based therapeutics company that uses a single cell genomics platform to identify and validate immune targets in parallel with antibody discovery and engineering. The company is advancing multiple programs derived from its platform, including lead asset IMT-009, a first-in-class CD161 inhibitor modulating NK and T cells, and IMT-073, a dual-target NK and T cell modulator. Immunitas intends to use the new funds to advance IMT-009 into the clinic for both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The company is led by CEO Jeffrey Goldberg and recently appointed Amanda Wagner as Chief Business Officer. Since its 2019 founding, Immunitas has raised a total of $97 million in venture funding from a syndicate of strategic and life-sciences investors. Immunitas employs a single cell genomics-based platform to dissect the tumor microenvironment and identify novel immune targets from human samples. The company has generated fully humanized monoclonal antibodies with single-agent activity in preclinical oncology models. Immunitas plans to advance its lead programs into human efficacy studies and clinical trials, driven by specific clinical biomarkers derived from its platform. The company was founded by Longwood Fund and is presented from Boston. Its scientific founders and leaders include pioneers in tumor immunobiology who contributed to the platform and target discovery. Immunitas intends to use its approach to accelerate translation of human biology into candidate therapeutics and patient-selection biomarkers.

Participated · Series A · May 2021

Interius BioTherapeutics is a preclinical-stage gene therapy company based in Philadelphia focused on an in vivo cell-specific gene delivery platform. Its lead program aims to generate chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells directly in patients, bypassing ex vivo cell manipulations and the potentially toxic pre-conditioning chemotherapy used in standard CAR T treatments. The company says the platform is versatile and it is developing applications beyond immuno-oncology for diseases not amenable to current gene therapy modalities. Interius was co-founded by Dr. Saar Gill and Bruce Peacock and is led by CEO Phil Johnson, MD. The company intends to use new funding to expand its development efforts. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Convertible Note · Apr 2021

C2i Genomics provides a cloud-based cancer diagnostics service that uses AI pattern recognition and whole-genome analysis to detect residual disease and inform treatment decisions. Its C2-Intelligence Platform can spot trace amounts of persistent or recurrent cancer earlier and at far lower levels, delivering actionable insights in as little as one week and deployable locally. The platform is GDPR- and HIPAA-compliant and is being used for clinical and drug-development research at institutions including the National Cancer Center of Singapore, Aarhus University Hospital, NYU Langone Health, and Lausanne University Hospital. The company said it will use the new funding to accelerate clinical development and commercialization of the C2-Intelligence Platform and to deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. C2i also maintains an R&D center in Haifa, Israel and a sequencing lab in Cambridge, MA. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Asaf Zviran. C2i Genomics offers a cloud-based, genome-wide liquid biopsy analysis that uses a personalized tumor “fingerprint” of thousands of mutations combined with proprietary inference models and machine learning to quantify circulating tumor DNA. The platform aims to detect very small amounts of residual disease and capture aggregate response across heterogeneous tumors, improving sensitivity versus panel-based approaches. Its technology was developed from research at the New York Genome Center and Weill Cornell Medicine and has been validated through longitudinal clinical cohorts and published in Nature Medicine. C2i provides diagnostic services to pharmaceutical and diagnostic organizations and plans to expand clinical validation across several oncology indications. The company intends to use new funding to advance pilot and pivotal validation studies and to deploy its cloud-based disease management platform. C2i is headquartered in New York City with an R&D center in Israel and collaborates with clinical partners in the US, Europe, and Asia.