TwoStep Therapeutics, a Palo Alto, CA-based biotechnology company developing new targeted therapeutics for solid tumors, raised $6.5m in seed funding.
The round was led by NFX, with participation from other investors including 2048 Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Cooley’s affiliated fund GC&H Investments, and the family office of the founder of Arcadia Investment Partners.
The company intends to use the funds to advance its therapeutic pipeline of solid tumor-targeting therapies, with an initial focus on targeted cytotoxic drug delivery and immunotherapy.
Founded by CEO Caitlyn Miller, and Stanford professor-entrepreneurs Jennifer Cochran, Ronald Levy, and Nobel Laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, TwoStep Therapeutics provides a delivery platform built around a tumor-targeting polyspecific integrin-binding peptide (PIP) that can selectively bind several targets that are highly expressed on solid tumors. This multi-targeting feature enables the agent’s broad applicability to a wide range of tumor types and patient populations, overcoming the limitations of single-antigen targeting approaches.
Development of TwoStep’s solid tumor-focused platform was driven by the combined expertise of its founding team in chemical biology, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and immuno-oncology. The founders established in vivo proof of concept of its multi-targeted agent using various therapeutic payloads and fusion proteins in the academic labs of its co-founders, and later within the Stanford Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). It is the first company to emerge from the IMA entrepreneur-in-residence program.
FinSMEs
25/06/2024