Atavistik Bio, a Cambridge, Mass.-based pre-clinical biotechnology company, completed a $60m Series A financing round.
The round was led by The Column Group which was joined by Lux Capital, and Nextech Invest, Ltd.
The company intends to use the funds for the development of its drug discovery platform, and future identification of select drug candidates based on deep knowledge of disease relevant pathways that have evolved over millions of years by nature to be allosterically regulated by metabolites.
Atavistik Bio is pioneering the identification of metabolite-protein interactions that have the potential to lead to the discovery and development of first-in-class drug candidates powered by distinct allosteric control mechanisms.
The platform is built on technology developed by co-founder Jared Rutter, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah. Professor Rutter is known for his work regarding novel protein metabolite interactions that has resulted in identification of novel allosteric regulatory sites for proteins of interest in disease.
Additionally, co-founder Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis, MD, PhD is a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is a medical geneticist with a deep understanding of human metabolism with a focus on pediatrics. Dr. DeBerardinis still attends to patients and has a unique understanding of the high unmet need in this critical area of human health. The co-founders will stay closely involved with the scientific direction at Atavistik as advisors.
The company will be led by John A. Josey, PhD, Acting CEO of Atavistik Bio, who was formerly CEO at Peloton Therapeutics, which was acquired by Merck in 2019. Dr. Josey is an experienced CEO with a long track record of novel drug discovery.
Marion Dorsch, PhD, has been appointed President and CSO. Dr. Dorsch is an accomplished scientist and senior executive with more than twenty years of biotech and pharma experience in oncology, inflammation and rare genetic diseases. She is known for her innovative drug discovery that has contributed to several accelerated drug approvals in oncology. Prior to this role, Dr. Dorsch was CSO at Blueprint Medicines.
FinSMEs
24/08/2021