Investment from Foresite Capital and ARCH Venture Partners will support platform development and therapeutic programs focused on inflammatory disease and cancer
Interline Therapeutics, a Foresite Labs incubated company focused on systematically elucidating protein communities to define molecular mechanisms of disease, announced today that the company has raised $92 million. Foresite Capital and ARCH Venture Partners co-led the financing, which will be used to expand the research platform and advance six preclinical therapeutic programs.
Dysfunctional protein communities drive disease
Proteins have generally been studied as isolated entities, but in nature function in protein communities – interconnected networks of dynamic protein interactions. Medical researchers have been limited by an incomplete understanding of how these communities impact common diseases, lowering the likelihood of successful drug development.
Reshaping protein communities to treat common diseases
Interline Therapeutics uses genomics, proteomics, structural biology and computational chemistry to systematically map and modulate protein communities. Interline is leveraging recent advancements in these technologies, as well as collaborations with leading academic groups, to develop a precision medicine platform focused on three essential areas:
- Genomics: Prioritize genetic variants that drive disease by altering protein communities
- Communities: Identify the specific molecular mechanisms through which these variants change protein community dynamics, enabled by the application of machine learning
- Modulators: Discover and characterize drugs that reshape these communities
The discovery platform will allow the company to identify new medicines targeting genetically validated signaling pathways and ensure that drug candidates comprehensively correct dysfunctional disease networks.
Interline was co-founded by CEO Zachary Sweeney, a scientist with a track record of growing and leading successful drug discovery groups. Company leaders bring decades of experience discovering innovative medicines at Amgen, Denali Therapeutics, Genentech, Novartis and Nurix. The team includes Nick Galli, Chief Operating Officer, Don Kirkpatrick, Chief Technology Officer, Mario Cardozo, Vice President Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics, Anj Saha, Vice President Discovery Pharmacology and David Tully, Vice President Medicinal Chemistry.
“Biomedical research is newly enabled by advances in human genomic and proteomic technologies,” said Zachary Sweeney, CEO. “We are excited to collaborate with leading research groups to develop a protein-focused roadmap for precision medicine.”
The company will continue to collaborate with Foresite Labs in the fields of data science and genomics. Interline also launches with foundational collaborations with University of California San Francisco and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, as well as an internationally recognized team of founding scientific advisors, including:
- John Chodera, PhD, Associate Member and Laboratory Director, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Wade Harper, PhD, Chairman and Bert and Natalie Vallee Professor of Molecular Pathology and Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School
- Nevan J. Krogan, PhD, Professor, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF, Director, Quantitative Biosciences Institutes, and Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes
- Brenda Schulman, PhD, Director, Molecular Machines and Signaling, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
- Mike Varney, PhD, Former Executive Vice President Research and Early Development of Genentech
“Interline has assembled a world-class set of scientific advisors and an outstanding leadership team,” said Mike Varney, member of the company’s Board of Directors. “The company has made great progress toward mapping and understanding the perturbations in protein dynamics caused by genetic mutations, and leveraging these insights to correct the protein communities found in cancer and inflammation.”
“By creating a platform to discover, understand and re-engineer protein interactions, we will find new approaches to treat debilitating diseases,” commented Vikram Bajaj, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Foresite Labs. “Zach and the Interline team possess an incredible breadth of experience, and we are thrilled to help accelerate Interline’s growth.”
Jay Parrish, PhD and Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners said, “Our investment in Interline Therapeutics reflects our commitment to their vision of protein-centric systems biology drug discovery. The platform allows for unique insights into mechanisms of serious illnesses with high unmet need, while delivering novel paths and high-impact therapeutics to tackle validated disease targets.”
For more information about Interline Therapeutics, please visit www.interlinetx.com.
Dr. Chodera has served as a scientific advisor for and has financial interests in Interline Therapeutics, and has also provided consulting and advisory services to Foresite Labs. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) has intellectual property rights and associated financial interests related to Interline Therapeutics by virtue of licensing agreements between MSK and Interline Therapeutics.
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