Startup Roundup

From new investments and partnerships to clinical trials and FDA approvals, KI and MIT research is making its way to patients. Find out how the companies below are leveling up in today's KI faculty-founded startup roundup highlights:

Strategic partnerships

Dragonfly Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology startup co-founded by KI director Tyler Jacks, has entered into a partnership with pharmaceutical giant Merck to license their TriNKETs technology, which leverages the power of natural killer cells against solid tumors.

Suono Bio, co-founded by KI faculty member Robert Langer, research affiliate Gio Traverso, former KI postdoc Carl Schoellhammer, and Amy Schulman, has entered into a partnership with Fujifilm.

New funding

KSQ, co-founded by KI faculty member David Sabatini, is using its signature technology to interrogate genes involved in human disease. The company, which has seen early success in identifying potential therapeutic targets for cancer treatment, has raised another $80 million of Series C funding, on top of the $76 million disclosed in 2017. Read more in the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.

Cell-squeezing startup SQZ Biotech, whose technology is based on research conducted at the KI under the Frontier Research Program, has secured $72 million in Series C funding to advance its cell therapy-based approaches in oncology and autoimmune diseases.

Also building on technology developed with support from the Frontier Research Program, Glympse Bio, Inc. has raised $22 million in Series A financing. The Bhatia Lab spinout uses engineered activity sensors to noninvasively probe disease activity in real-time including onset, stage, and response to treatments.

Clinical studies & trials

Precision medicine startup Trovagene has secured exclusive rights to develop combination therapies and clinical biomarkers based on a key discovery made by researchers in the laboratory of KI faculty member and director of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine Michael Yaffe. This research was funded by the Bridge Project, our signature collaboration with Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. The agreement opens up new possibilities for the company's Onvansertib, currently in Phase 2 clinical trials, and new promise for prostate cancer patients.

In partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, CRISPR Therapeutics has launched a Phase 1/2 clinical trial to test its genome-editing techniques in patients with the blood disorder beta thalassemia. KI faculty member Daniel Anderson is a scientific co-founder and advisor.

Sabatini startup Navitor initiated a Phase 1 clinical study using an mTORC pathway-targeting drug to combat treatment-resistant depression.

FDA approvals

Verastem, co-founded in 2010 by KI faculty members Piyush Gupta, Eric Lander, Robert Weinberg, announced FDA approval for COPIKTRA, a small molecule drug that inhibits critical signaling pathways in cancer. It will be available for general use in adult patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) after at least two prior therapies.

Alnylam, co-founded by KI faculty member Phil Sharp and headed by Xconomy CEO Award winner and recent KI summer symposium speaker John Maraganore, has secured the first-ever FDA approval for an RNAi drug.

Profiles

The New York Times explores the wide world of bacteria-based synthetic biology. Focusing on treatment of a rare inherited disease called phenylketonuria, known as PKU, the article highlights startup company Synlogic, co-founded by KI faculty member Timothy Lu and fellow MIT synthetic biologist James Collins. Readers will also spot an appearance by former Bhatia Lab postdoc Tal Danino and Jeff Hasty, an alumnus of Collins's lab, who are collaborating on a project to teach bacteria how to infiltrate and destroy tumors. An early incarnation of this work, Bacterial Supernova, received a coveted KI Image Award in 2013.

Fellow 2013 Image Awards winner Sushi Implant and its 2015 successor Masters of Disguise showcase the work of Anderson and Langer Lab to develop protective devices for therapeutic cells. Startup company Sigilon Therapeutics builds on this work and is featured in this Scientific American profile of encapsulated-cell therapies.