Flare Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass. – based biotechnology company targeting transcription factors to discover precision medicines for cancer and other diseases, raised $82m in Series A financing.
The round was led by Third Rock Ventures with participation from Boxer Capital, Nextech Invest, Casdin Capital, Invus Financial Advisors and Eventide Asset Management.
The company intends to use the funds for further advancement of its lead program in precision oncology toward the clinic proprietary assays to discover small molecules that target transcription factors at switch sites.
Led by Abbie Celniker, PhD, interim chief executive officer, Flare is a biotechnology company with a novel approach to decipher the biology of transcription factors to develop small molecule medicines. Based on insights from the seminal work of its scientific founders, the team has uncovered ‘switch sites,’ druggable regions that are key targets for transcription factor regulation to address mutations that cause disease. Its drug discovery to target switch sites has rapidly advanced, resulting in an emerging pipeline of drug programs that address validated transcription factors, initially focused on precision oncology with future potential in neurology, rare genetic disorders, immunology and inflammation.
The team includes:
- Abbie Celniker, PhD, interim chief executive officer;
- James Audia, PhD, distinguished scientist;
- Lorence Kim, MD, interim chief operating officer;
- Jeanette Kohlbrenner, interim chief people officer; and
- Robert Sims, PhD, chief scientific officer.
FinSMEs
13/05/2021