The Seed+ financing will expand Talus Bioscience’s MARMOT platform, leveraging new AI models to discover and optimize transcription factor modulators against previously “undruggable” targets

August 20, 2024 05:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Talus Bioscience, a drug discovery company founded by a world-class team of scientific leaders in proteomics, biochemistry, and machine learning, today announced $11.2M in new venture funding. The Seed+ round was led by Two Bear Capital, with participation from WRF Capital, NFX, YC Continuity Fund, Funders Club VC, and BoxOne Ventures.

“This new funding from our exceptional partners validates and supports our work producing the first AI model to discover and optimize new modulators of any transcription factor,” said Talus Bioscience CEO and Co-Founder Alex Federation, PhD.

The funding will be invested to advance Talus Bio’s therapeutic programs, which include Brachyury-driven cancers and an undruggable transcription factor implicated in prostate cancer. It will also accelerate the expansion of the company’s proprietary Multiplexed Assays for the Rational Modulation Of Transcription Factors (MARMOT) platform.

MARMOT leverages new AI models trained on Talus Bio’s dataset for transcription factor activity, currently the largest in the world. MARMOT allows scientists to rapidly identify optimal candidates from billions of compounds, replacing time-consuming high-throughput screens, which have historically failed for transcription factors and are limited to millions of compounds. With MARMOT, machine learning models discover and optimize modulators for any given transcription factor target, enabling the massive acceleration of discovery screening in live, unmodified human cells where targets fold and function properly.

“This new funding from our exceptional partners validates and supports our work producing the first AI model to discover and optimize new modulators of any transcription factor,” said Talus Bioscience CEO and Co-Founder Alex Federation, PhD. “With our growing team of leading data scientists, we can use tens of millions of data points generated from the MARMOT platform to predict the best places to look for new molecules to block disease-causing transcription factors. We’re just getting started as we source new partners to help advance the dozens of promising transcription factor candidates we have discovered to date.”

Transcription factors are proteins that regulate the genome by binding to DNA and orchestrating which genes are turned on or off at any given time. When they go awry, they often drive cancer and other disease processes like diabetes, inflammatory diseases, fibrosis, and neurological conditions.

“Talus Bio’s platform incorporates advances in chemistry, proteomics and computational biology to generate a dataset that was previously impossible. The scale, comprehensiveness, and efficiency with which they can target transcription factors gives their AI approach a distinct advantage and has already generated a robust list of hits against attractive drug targets,” said Avery Sonnenberg, PhD, Principal at lead investor Two Bear Capital. “We’re thrilled to be working with this exceptional team as they pursue both partnerships and internal development of these exciting programs which have the potential to redefine how we treat complex diseases and improve patient outcomes globally.”

J. Seth Strattan, PhD, General Partner at Two Bear Capital, will also take a seat on the Talus Bio board in conjunction with the financing.

To date, Talus Bio has secured six non-dilutive grant awards exceeding $7.3M, along with $19.7M in venture funding, including this latest round.

Follow Talus Bioscience on LinkedIn for the latest news and updates.

About Talus Bioscience

Founded in 2020 by Alex Federation, PhD, and Lindsay Pino, PhD, Talus Bio is a drug discovery and development company focused on therapeutics that target previously undruggable transcription factors. The Seattle-based company’s proprietary therapeutics discovery platform, MARMOT (Multiplexed Assays for the Rational Modulation Of Transcription Factors), integrates AI, next-gen proteomics, synthetic chemistry, and computational biology to engineer and interrogate drugs, proteins, and genomics at unprecedented scale. Talus Bio employs a growing team of more than a dozen world-leading experts in proteomics, biochemistry, computational biology, and machine learning.

About Two Bear Capital

Two Bear Capital was founded in 2019 by Mike Goguen with a mission to empower visionary entrepreneurs to build enduring, impactful companies while benefiting society and delivering for investors. The Two Bear team combines expertise in enterprise technology, cybersecurity, and the life sciences, including where these domains intersect, to invest in solutions that make a meaningful difference to markets and to people. Together with the founders in the Two Bear family we believe that the future we want is ours to build. Two Bear Capital has offices in Menlo Park, San Diego, Boston, and New York, with a home base in Whitefish, Montana. For more, visit www.twobearcapital.com.

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