US-based cancer therapy developer Boundless Bio has closed a $46.4m series A round featuring Alexandria Venture Investments, the corporate venturing arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners and healthcare investment firm City Hill Ventures co-led the round, which included Vertex Ventures, GT Healthcare Capital Partners and Tavistock Group vehicle Boxer Capital.
Boundless Bio is working on cancer treatments that will target extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), following research that has highlighted its role in tumour growth, resistance to treatment and recurrence of the disease.
The funding will go to further enhancement of the technology used by the company to identify types of tumours that are influenced by ecDNA, as well as preliminary development of treatments designed to target its vulnerabilities.
Zachary Hornby, Boundless Bio’s president and CEO, said: “Boundless Bio aims to improve cancer care by bringing a whole new class of weapons to the cancer-fighting armamentarium that exploit the emerging field of ecDNA biology.
“When DNA in cancer cells comes off chromosomes in the form of ecDNA, it replicates more rapidly and is more transcriptionally active, allowing cancer cells to grow and resist treatment. We are creating powerful medicines that counterattack this ecDNA phenomenon by eliminating cancer cells’ ability to employ ecDNA to survive.”
