Start-Up Cofounded By George Church Secures $2.1M In Seed Funding
George M. Church’s start-up focused on developing enhanced protein therapeutics based on computational protein design and synthetic biology technologies, GRO Biosciences, has now raised $2.1 million in seed funding.
The funds secured during the round led by Digitalis Ventures and joined by Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, will support buildout of bioprocess development for GRO Biosciences’ platform of genomically recoded bacteria for the production of therapeutic proteins with enhanced properties, such as increased potency and stability, and improved targeting and delivery into cells and tissues.
“For decades, bacteria have been used as the workhorses of the biotech industry in the production of blockbuster therapeutics, and we believe that we can dramatically expand their utility by recoding their genomes,” said Dr. Church. “GRO Biosciences’ technology addresses the fundamental limitations of producing proteins with non-standard amino acids, opening up the possibility of creating a new universe of designer proteins with enhanced therapeutic properties at commercial scale.”
The Boston-based startup is addressing the challenge of therapeutic protein instability by replacing disulfide-bond-forming cysteine amino acid residues with selenocysteine, a naturally-occurring amino acid that is rarely incorporated into proteins, but is found in the cell. Selenocysteine has a structure and chemical properties very similar to cysteine, however diselenide bonds are stable under the same conditions where disulfide bonds are not, leading to a much longer half-life of the therapeutic protein.
“GRO Biosciences is literally reprogramming biology,” said Dror Berman, Managing Partner of Innovation Endeavors. “What I find most compelling is their ability to converge game-changing synthetic biology with powerful computational design to create a new class of living organisms, unlocking unprecedented capabilities in medicine, materials and biotechnology.”
“Protein therapeutics represent a $180 billion market, yet product stability, targeting, and delivery into the cell still remain significant challenges to be addressed if we are to enhance the patient experience, achieve better compliance and improve health outcomes,” said Geoffrey W. Smith, founder and managing partner of Digitalis Ventures.
