Kronos Bio, a US-based small molecule cancer drug spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), yesterday closed a $105m series A round featuring GV, a corporate venturing arm of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet.
The round was co-led by venture capital firm Vida Ventures and investment firm Omega Funds, with commitments from Nextech, Perceptive Advisors, Invus, Polaris Partners, Kronos president and CEO Norbert Bischofberger and assorted board directors.
Founded in 2017, Kronos Bio hopes to leverage its small molecule microarray (SMM) drug discovery platform as the basis for new drug targets which target historically intractable forms of cancer.
The SMM platform identifies compounds capable of binding to biological proteins, undermining their connection to other proteins and DNA and of otherwise affecting their activity through external co-factors or members of the same protein class.
Kronos Bio argues its approach will address targets such as transcription factors that are untreatable with existing small molecule drugs, which, for practical reasons, focus on proteins known to be well-structured and accessible.
The influx of series A capital will help Kronos Bio progress two preclinical drug candidates based on the SMM platform. The funding will also support Kronos’s research pipeline and help drive recruitment.
Kronos Bio spawned as a portfolio company of life sciences investment firm Two River to take forward 10 years of research led by Angela Koehler, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering.
The spinout went on to close a $18m seed round in May 2018 co-led by investors including Omega Funds, BellCo Capital, Vida Ventures, angel investor John Martin and Norbert Bischofberger, according to VCNewsDaily, though full details were not provided.
– This article first appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.