• HiberCell

  Participated · Series B · May 2021

  HiberCell develops therapeutic molecules aimed at preventing cancer relapse and metastasis by targeting stress biology and innate immunity. The company’s lead candidate, HC-5404-FU, is the first from its 'stress modulator' platform and reportedly has direct anti-tumor activity while reprogramming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. HiberCell views cancer as a chronic disease and is focused on therapies that address relapse and metastasis. The company will use proceeds from its recent financings to support clinical development of these novel therapeutics. HiberCell is led by Co-Founder and CEO Alan Rigby, Ph.D. and is based in New York City. HiberCell develops therapeutics that target dormant disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) from solid and liquid cancers to prevent relapse and metastasis. The company is exclusively focused on DTC-directed drug discovery and development. At launch, Alan Rigby, Ph.D., will serve as president and chief scientific officer; Ari Nowacek, Ph.D., M.D., will serve as vice president of operations and business development; and Mark Mulvihill, Ph.D., will serve as vice president of chemistry and drug discovery. Its team comprises cancer scientists, venture capitalists and drug developers. HiberCell raised $60.75M in Series A financing to advance its therapeutic programs. The company has assembled a board and a scientific advisory board with academic and industry leaders to guide its programs.

• Vividion Therapeutics

  Participated · Series B · Apr 2019

  Vividion Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses integrated discovery technologies to enable precision small‑molecule therapeutics for oncology and immunology. Its platform finds cryptic functional pockets, uses a proteome‑trained covalent chemistry library, and applies industrial‑scale chemoproteomics to ensure selectivity. Leveraging these capabilities, Vividion is advancing a broad pipeline of potent, selective small molecules across oncology and immune indications. The company’s initial wholly owned programs target the KEAP1‑NRF2 axis (both antagonists for NRF2 mutant/addicted cancers and agonists for inflammatory diseases) and, in partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb, a program against a challenging transcription factor. Vividion says it intends to begin advancing programs into the clinic next year. The company is headquartered in San Diego. Vividion Therapeutics is a San Diego-based biotechnology company with a platform to discover small molecule therapeutics against biologically compelling but previously intractable targets. Its platform, built on seminal work from labs at The Scripps Research Institute, enables screening of small molecules against every protein in native biological systems and identifies highly selective binders agnostic to protein class and function. Those binders can be developed into drugs using approaches including direct and allosteric modulation of protein function and targeted protein degradation. The company’s immediate focus is in oncology and immunology. Led by CEO Dr. Diego Miralles, Vividion intends to use new funding to expand operations and advance its research efforts. Vividion Therapeutics has developed a chemical proteomics platform that creates proteome-wide drug interaction maps to identify ligands and targets in native biological systems. The platform is designed to expand the druggable proteome and address targets previously considered undruggable by assessing target engagement and global selectivity early. Vividion applies novel chemistry to accelerate optimization of fragment hits into drug candidates and holds a robust intellectual property estate covering newly recognized druggable sites. The company was spun out of labs at The Scripps Research Institute and was founded with seed financing from Cardinal Partners. Headquartered in San Diego, Vividion focuses on developing transformative therapeutics to treat major unmet clinical needs. In conjunction with its launch financing, the company added experienced industry leadership to its board to support accelerated drug discovery and development.

• ORIC Pharmaceuticals

  Participated · Series C · Feb 2018

  Oric Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage oncology company discovering and developing novel therapies targeting treatment-resistant cancers. Its lead asset, ORIC-101, is a potent small-molecule inhibitor of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and is the subject of an ongoing Phase 1 study. The company plans to pursue clinical development of ORIC-101 in patients with treatment-resistant solid tumors, including combinations with immuno-oncology therapies and with chemotherapy. The Series C proceeds will support clinical studies of ORIC-101 and research across pipeline programs targeting mechanisms of resistance. After this financing, Oric has raised over $119M in equity capital to date. The company is led by CEO Richard Heyman, Ph.D., CSO Valeria Fantin, Ph.D., and CMO Leonard Reyno, M.D., and was founded by Charles Sawyers, M.D., and Scott Lowe, Ph.D., who are on the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Oric Pharmaceuticals discovers and develops small‑molecule drugs that target treatment‑resistant cancers. It is initially focusing on resistance mechanisms associated with androgen receptor (AR) therapies in advanced (castration‑resistant) prostate cancer. The company works to gain new clinical understanding of tumor resistance mechanisms at the molecular level and to replicate those mechanisms using laboratory‑based models to identify actionable drug targets with clear development pathways. Oric intends to use the proceeds from its recent financing to advance its first drug candidate into initial clinical trials and to further develop its pipeline. The company raised $53M in a Series B financing to support these plans. Oric was founded by Charles Sawyers, M.D., and Scott Lowe, Ph.D., and is led by interim CEO Richard Heyman, Ph.D., and CSO Valeria Fantin, Ph.D.

• Gritstone bio

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2017

  Gritstone Oncology develops personalized cancer immunotherapies built around a tumor antigen identification platform (Gritstone EDGE) and a neoantigen delivery system. The company leverages deep learning and extensive human tumor molecular analysis to predict and deploy patient-specific neoantigens. Its lead program targeting tumor-specific neoantigens is expected to enter clinical trials in mid-2018 in non-small cell lung cancer and gastric cancer. Proceeds from the financing will advance the EDGE platform and Gritstone’s pipeline and fund completion of a 43,000 square-foot cGMP manufacturing facility in Pleasanton, CA. The facility is intended to form the nucleus of manufacturing for personalized therapeutics, with first investigational products expected to be manufactured in 2018. Gritstone launched in October 2015 and is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with certain functions in Cambridge, MA. Gritstone Oncology develops personalized cancer immunotherapies centered on tumor-specific neo-antigens (TSNAs). The company focuses initially on discovering and developing TSNA-based therapies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It operates out of San Francisco, CA and Cambridge, MA. Gritstone intends to use new funding to advance discovery and development programs. Leadership includes co-founder, president and CEO Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D., and co-founders Tim Chan, Naiyer Rizvi, Jean-Charles Soria, Graham Lord and Mark Cobbold. The company raised a $102M Series A to support these efforts.

• Quanterix

  Led · Series D · Mar 2016

  Quanterix develops the Simoa digital health platform to digitize biomarker analysis and enable earlier disease detection, better prognosis, and improved treatment. Its technology is used for research across oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation and infectious disease. The company plans to use new financing to develop instruments, expand its assay menu and meet global demand across therapeutic markets. Quanterix has raised approximately $55 million to date, including a $46 million Series D in March 2016 and a recent $8.5 million private placement. The company was founded in 2007 and is located in Lexington, Massachusetts. It has also strengthened its leadership team and added Dr. Marijn Dekkers to its board to support scaling and global expansion. Quanterix commercializes the Simoa platform, an ultrasensitive digital immunoassay that measures single molecules to detect previously undetectable proteins for research and clinical testing. The company says its technology has applications across oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation and infectious disease and has been showcased in 57 peer‑reviewed publications. Management reported six consecutive quarters of 100 percent growth, and the company has received industry recognition including Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies of 2016” and a GE–NFL Head Health Challenge award. Proceeds from the recent financing will be used to develop desktop instruments, expand the assay menu for protein and nucleic acid biomarkers, bolster the global channel to market and enable new pivotal medical studies. Quanterix plans to launch desktop instruments in 2017 and had targeted development of 60 new assays by the end of 2016. The company was established in 2007 and is located in Lexington, Massachusetts. Quanterix develops Simoa, a digital single-molecule immunoassay platform that enables detection of analytes at much higher sensitivity than conventional analog protein assays. The Simoa platform offers multiplex capability and full automation aimed at both research and clinical testing. The company intends to commercialize the Simoa platform for life‑science research in mid‑2013. Under a strategic agreement, bioMerieux will hold worldwide exclusive rights to Simoa in clinical laboratories and industrial applications; Quanterix will supply a new instrument and consumables while bioMerieux develops ultra‑sensitive, multiplex assays with a focus on infectious diseases. Quanterix will receive upfront and milestone payments and royalties through the agreement and bioMerieux has taken an initial $15 million equity stake. The partnership is positioned to extend the platform into new clinical uses while leaving Quanterix flexibility to pursue other commercial opportunities. Quanterix is a development-stage company based in Cambridge, MA that develops molecular diagnostic tests and ultra-sensitive detection systems. Its Single Molecule Array (SiMoA) technology enables researchers and clinicians to detect previously hard-to-detect or undetectable biomarkers. The digital nature of SiMoA yields about a 1,000-fold improvement in sensitivity compared with current state-of-the-art technology. SiMoA allows detection of very low virus concentrations at the earliest stages of infection without amplification. The technology supports validation of novel low-abundance biomolecules and can be used for improved diagnosis, therapy selection, and disease monitoring. The company disclosed in SEC filings that it has raised $2 million in convertible debt from nine separate investors. Quanterix develops and manufactures a fully automated instrument and low-cost consumables for the life sciences and in vitro diagnostics markets using its proprietary Single Molecule Array (SiMoA) technology. SiMoA provides a digital assay format that the company says yields roughly a 1,000‑fold improvement in sensitivity versus analog methods and has been validated in multiple published journal articles. The platform enables direct, non-amplified detection of pathogens and low‑abundance biomolecules from small blood samples, with applications in disease detection, diagnosis, therapy selection, and monitoring. Quanterix is pursuing expansion of its platform capabilities to enable simultaneous measurement of nucleic acids and proteins. The company has announced a strategic investment and technology development agreement to support that expansion; the financial terms were not disclosed. Quanterix is privately held and has been backed by life‑science investors including ARCH Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, and Flagship Ventures.

No current team members are available.