US-based biotechnology developer ZielBio closed a $25.1m series A round on Thursday co-led by Partners Innovation Fund (PIF), the investment arm of health system Partners HealthCare, and Morningside Venture Investments.
Founded in 2012 as iTiHealth, ZielBio has built a platform called Zielfind that combines functional, high-throughput screening with data analytics to identify high-value targets for therapeutics.
The company is initially focusing on ZB131, an antibody against cell surface plectin (CSP), a target highly expressed in several indications of cancer, including ovarian, pancreatic, lung and colorectal.
ZielBio is based on work by founder, president and chief science officer Kimberly Kelly, a professor of biomedical engineering at University of Virginia. She had conducted the initial research at Massachusetts General Hospital until 2008.
The money and expertise provided by Partners HealthCare and Morningside are set to accelerate the further development of ZB131. Meredith Fisher, partner at PIF, and Jason Dinges, investment adviser at Morningside, have joined the board of directors.
Fisher said: “Since its first discovery by ZielBio founder Kimberly Kelly at Massachusetts General Hospital, we have been encouraged by the unique role that cell surface plectin plays in proliferation, migration and cell survival and its potential as a drug target for a range of difficult to treat cancers.
“Extensive pre-clinical laboratory and animal research has demonstrated that ZB131 has a high affinity to bind to CSP, inducing growth arrest and necrosis of targeted tumour cells.”
