On April 6, 2022 TRIANA Biomedicines, Inc. (Triana) reported their launch with $110 million in total funding to establish a best-in-class, scalable platform to discover and develop "molecular glues" (Press release, Triana Biomedicines, APR 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234615032]). Triana’s platform aims to generate products that stabilize pre-existing or create de novo interactions between two proteins and alter the fate or functionality of the disease target. Molecular glues may allow for the pursuit of highly disease-relevant targets long considered undruggable or inadequately addressed by traditional drug discovery approaches.

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Triana was originally seeded by RA Capital Management and Atlas Venture. This Series A is co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and the company’s seed investors. Pfizer Ventures, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) and Logos Capital also participate in this round. In November of 2021, Dr. Patrick Trojer joined Triana as President & CEO to lead the company’s funding efforts. Dr. Trojer previously served as CSO of Constellation Pharmaceuticals. In addition to Dr. Trojer, the leadership team includes CTO and co-founder Dr. Jesse Chen, CSO Dr. Jean-Christophe Harmange and SVP of Biology Dr. Kathleen Seyb.

By pursuing both a target-first and rational approach to molecular glue discovery, Triana aspires to develop products for a wide range of therapeutic applications. The company’s innovative platform enables evaluation and prioritization of over 600 known E3 ubiquitin ligases and their disease-relevant targets, and rapid exploration of diverse chemical space for identification of molecular glue degraders.

"Triana aims to solve the number one problem in the molecular glue field by selecting the best available ligase for each target to enable systematic molecular glue discovery," said Dr. Trojer.

Dr. Trojer serves on the Triana Board of Directors alongside institutional directors Atlas Partner Dr. David Grayzel, RA Capital Managing Director Dr. Josh Resnick, Lightspeed Partner Dr. Shelley Chu, Executive Director at Pfizer and Pfizer Ventures Partner Dr. Christopher O’Donnell, and independently elected directors of the board Dr. Simon Read, Jigar Raythatha and Dr. Milind Deshpande.

"We are excited to lead the Series A for Triana, which operates at the compelling and unique intersection of machine learning, structural biophysics and glue-focused DEL screening," said Dr. Chu.

"Triana is pioneering the next frontier in targeted protein degradation," said Dr. Resnick. "Building on our past support for companies working on induced proximity, Triana extends the profound benefits of degradation with rational glue discovery."

"Triana has built a world-leading team to develop glues," said Dr. Grayzel. "Together with our co-founders and outstanding scientific advisors in ubiquitin biology, machine learning and targeted protein degradation, we are uniquely positioned to create new medicines for patients."

In addition to Dr. Tom Kodadek of Scripps, Triana’s scientific advisory board includes Dr. Michele Pagano of NYU and HHMI, Dr. John Karanicolas of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Dr. Danny Huang of the Beatson Institute and Dr. Fleur Ferguson of UCSD.

On April 6, 2022 Race Oncology Limited ("Race") reported it has received human ethics approval for its open label clinical trial of Zantrene (bisantrene dihydrochloride) in patients with extramedullary Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) or highrisk Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) (Press release, Race Oncology, APR 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234613997]).

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Before patients can be enrolled and treated at the lead site – Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital – Race must receive Research Governance Office (RGO) (site budget and contracting) approval. All required documentation has now been submitted to enable this outcome. Governance approval is typically received within 4 to 8 weeks from submission.

This open label Phase 1 trial with a dose expansion Phase 2 stage will recruit up to 60 patients with extramedullary AML or MDS using a two-stratum (arm) design (ASX Announcement: November 1, 2021).

On April 6, 2022 Linnaeus Therapeutics, Inc. ("Linnaeus"), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel small molecule oncology therapeutics, reported it has been awarded a Phase 2 Bridge Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") Award by the National Cancer Institute ("NCI") of the National Institutes of Health ("NIH") (Press release, Linnaeus Therapeutics, APR 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234611945]).

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The $4,000,000 award was granted to the company after a highly competitive peer-review process. The award will help fund the clinical development of its lead compound, LNS8801, which targets a G protein-coupled receptor (GPER), for the treatment of metastatic cutaneous and uveal melanoma both as a monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab.

"This award provides a strong peer-reviewed validation of the core science that is the basis of LNS8801, its target GPER, and the early clinical data seen in patients with cancer," said Patrick Mooney, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Linnaeus. "This award will allow us to further advance LNS8801 as a potentially safe and effective oral therapeutic for the treatment of metastatic cutaneous and uveal melanoma. We thank the NCI for their ongoing support and belief in the potential of LNS8801 to help patients with cancer."

About LNS8801

LNS8801 is an orally bioavailable and highly specific and potent agonist of GPER whose activity is dependent on the expression of GPER. GPER activation by LNS8801 rapidly and durably depletes c-Myc protein levels. In preclinical cancer models, LNS8801 displays potent antitumor activities across a wide range of tumor types, rapidly shrinking tumors and inducing immune memory.

In the ongoing clinical study in humans, LNS8801 monotherapy has been safe and well tolerated. Additionally, LNS8801 has demonstrated target engagement, c-Myc protein depletion, and clinical benefit in patients with advanced cancer.

On April 6, 2022 Treadwell Therapeutics reported that it has entered into a license agreement with the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, Canada for four novel oncology target programs, including a deep estate of pre-clinical therapeutic candidates including both antibodies and small molecules (Press release, Treadwell Therapeutics, APR 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234611837]). These programs were initiated and validated by the therapeutics team at UHN’s Campbell Family Institute at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, which previously drove the development of Treadwell’s small molecule pipeline from concept to clinic. The terms of the agreement, as well as the identity of the targets, were not disclosed.

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"It is extremely gratifying to have the opportunity to build on the legacy of innovation represented in these programs within Treadwell. This expansion of our preclinical pipeline aligns with Treadwell’s commitment to continue to deliver effective, first-in-class therapeutic options for cancer patients. We look forward to further validating these assets and selecting a development candidate for the most advanced program in 2022." said Dr. Mark Bray, Treadwell CSO and co-founder. "Our goal at Treadwell is to leverage novel scientific insight into a multi-modality pipeline. With small molecule, cell therapy and now biologic candidates, we are well on our way to achieving that goal." added Dr. Michael Tusche, Treadwell co-CEO.

"We are pleased to expand our commercialization partnership further with Treadwell, a UHN spinout company, with these newest license deals. Treadwell’s deeply experienced team is a sound choice to be taking UHN’s world-class medical technologies forward," says Mark Taylor, Director, Commercialization at UHN.

On April 6, 2022 ENSEM Therapeutics Inc. (ENSEM), a Boston-based biotechnology company focusing on high value and difficult-to-drug oncology targets, reported the closing of a series A2 financing (Press release, ENSEM Therapeutics, APR 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234611645]). Incubated by CBC group since 2021, the financing is led by GGV Capital, with participation from Pavilion Capital, Cenova Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., and CBC Group, bringing the series A total to $67 million.

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"The pharma/biotech industry has been facing a severe bottleneck imposed by a limited number of druggable targets and the slow pace at which new discoveries can be advanced to clinical trials." said Sean Cao, CEO of ENSEM and Managing Director of CBC Group. "The ENSEM team is made up of veteran drug hunters with extensive experience in advancing novel medicines into clinical trials and regulatory approvals. We will combine new tools coupled with AI and machine learning to break these barriers."

"Biomolecules such as proteins and RNAs are in constant motion, with an ensemble of conformations that govern their functions. Traditional approaches have been ineffective in productively capturing these dynamic states due to experimental and computational limitations," said Shengfang Jin, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of ENSEM. "Our team has developed Kinetic EnsembleTM, a novel multi-tiered platform integrating molecular simulation, AI deep learning, and advanced experimental validation by state-of-the-art macromolecular dynamic techniques. We expect many of these programs will reveal non-obvious binding sites as drug targets and create novel classes of small molecule therapeutics."

"ENSEM has made remarkable progress in a short time," said Joshua Wu, Partner of GGV Capital. "The rich industry and technical expertise of this founding team and its unique platform are the core assets of an exciting AI drug discovery company. We believe ENSEM’s differentiated technologies will enable a new generation of drug targets. We are excited to co-lead the series A2 financing and partner with the ENSEM team to accelerate its growth."

Proceeds will be used to further advance the company’s Kinetic EnsembleTM platform and accelerate R&D pipeline.