US-based biotechnology developer Relay Therapeutics launched yesterday with $57m in series A funding from biochemistry research company DE Shaw Research and venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures.
Relay Therapeutics is working on a drug discovery platform based on protein motion. The approach exploits a new understanding of dynamic structural changes undergone by protein molecules in the human body.
Relay is initially focusing on cancer treatments but hopes its technology can be applied to a range of diseases for which no effective therapies currently exist.
The company is commercialising research conducted by David Shaw, founder of DE Shaw Research, as well as Matthew Jacobson of University of California San Francisco, Dorothee Kern of at Brandeis University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Mark Murcko of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alexis Borisy, executive chairman and interim chief executive of Relay Therapeutics, and partner at Third Rock Ventures, said: “Our integration of protein motion into the heart of the drug discovery process represents both a philosophical and technological once-in-a-generation paradigm shift.
“At Relay, we have assembled the team and tools to build the first company with a dedicated drug discovery pipeline cantered around protein motion. This advancement in drug discovery – from static to dynamic – creates opportunities to develop more effective therapies that we believe will improve and extend the lives of millions of patients.”