Think Bioscience welcomes new investor YK
Bioventures and drug discovery veteran Wendy Young to the board
BOULDER,
Colo., May 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Think
Bioscience ("Think"), a Boulder-based synthetic biology company
focused on developing small-molecule therapeutics that target
"undruggable" proteins, has announced a $6M Seed Expansion.
Existing investors are joined by YK Bioventures, bringing total
funding to $26M. The additional raise
will accelerate the company's pipeline and expand their unique
approach for finding new functional pockets on challenging
targets.
Ultimately, the biochemical properties of any
small-molecule drug are constrained by its binding site, a pocket
on its protein target. Despite advances in computational chemistry
and structural biology, new functional pockets remain challenging
to find. Think's pocket-finding process programs microbes to build
small molecules that bind to functional pockets, and they use these
pockets to find hits in drug-like space. They have extended their
platform technology to a striking variety of targets
such as protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), kinases (PTKs),
proteases, and GTPases.
"Nature has endowed living systems with an
extraordinary ability to build potent bioactive compounds, usually
to fulfill important ecological functions, such as defense," said
Dr. Jerome Fox, co-founder and CEO
of Think Bioscience. "We are using a similar selection process to
discover new functional pockets on challenging drug targets. New
pockets are gold."
Gary Yeung, a
managing partner at YK Bioventures, added, "We invested in Think
Bioscience because of its transformational platform for new
discoveries. Think Bio has already identified multiple novel
pockets and generated strong pre-clinical data for its lead
programs. We are eager to support Think Bio's science-driven
leadership team to advance these programs and to fund its
growth."
Dr. Wendy Young will join
the Board of Directors, which includes fellow veteran drug
developer Nick Saccomano. Dr. Young
has held leadership positions in biopharma for over 30 years and
most recently spent 15 years at Genentech where she served as
Senior Vice President of Small Molecule Drug Discovery and co-led
research. She currently serves as a SAB member to Think, as well as
several other biotech companies, and is an advisor at Google
Ventures. "We look forward to working even more closely with
Wendy," said Dr. Jerome Fox,
co-founder and CEO at Think Bioscience. "Wendy and Nick bring a
wealth of drug development expertise. Their guidance will be
invaluable as we expand our platform to new classes of important
targets and push pipeline programs toward the clinic."
About Think Bioscience
Think Bioscience
is reimagining synthetic biology by using living systems to guide
the design and assembly of better medicines. The company programs
microbes to build small molecules that bind to functional pockets,
and they use these pockets to find hits in drug-like space. The
platform technology has been expanded to protein tyrosine
phosphatases (PTPs), kinases (PTKs), proteases, and GTPases. Learn
more about us at www.thinkbioscience.com.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/think-bioscience-extends-seed-round-to-accelerate-pocket-finding-platform-302136918.html
SOURCE Think Bioscience