US-based molecular glue developer Triana Biomedicines has publicly launched with $110m in series A funding provided by investors including pharmaceutical firm Pfizer’s corporate venturing unit, Pfizer Ventures.
The series A round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, RA Capital Management and Atlas Venture, with additional backing from Surveyor Capital and Logos Capital.
Triana is developing a discovery platform for molecular glue, a type of molecule that brings together proteins that do not normally interact, for use in a range of therapies for diseases that would be difficult to treat through other methods.
Patrick Trojer, who joined Triana as president and chief executive in November 2021, said: “Triana aims to solve the number one problem in the molecular glue field by selecting the best available ligase for each target to enable systematic molecular glue discovery.”
The company claims its technology enables the evaluation and prioritisation of more than 600 known E3 ubiquitin ligases – or binding agents – as well as their disease-relevant targets.
RA Capital Management and Atlas Venture previously provided Triana’s seed funding, it said, and it raised $34.8m in February this year according to a regulatory filing.
Pfizer Ventures partner Christopher O’Donnell is joining the startup’s board of directors in conjunction with the funding, along with Lightspeed’s Shelley Chu, RA Capital Management’s Josh Resnick and Atlas Venture’s David Grayzel.
Photo courtesy of Triana Biomedicines.
