News & Publications

• Proceeds will support lead precision oncology program into the clinic and advance earlier stage pipeline
• Atavistik Bio is discovering transformative precision allosteric small molecule therapeutics for genetically validated targets by leveraging the body’s natural regulators
• Internally focused on precision oncology and rare diseases; plans to work with partners to maximize the broad therapeutic potential of its novel approach to identify regulators of protein and RNA function

Cambridge, Mass., December 19, 2023 – Atavistik Bio, a biotechnology company discovering the next generation of precision allosteric therapeutics inspired by the body’s natural regulators, today announced that it has raised an additional $40 million to advance its lead precision allosteric small molecule therapeutic in oncology into the clinic and to advance its earlier stage pipeline. The financing included existing investors, including The Column Group, Lux Capital, and Nextech Invest, Ltd. Atavistik Bio has raised $100 million in aggregate since its launch in August 2021.

“We’ve made tremendous progress identifying functional pockets of validated targets and have accelerated the development of precision allosteric therapeutics. Key to our success has been our outstanding team with the know-how and proven track record of discovering and developing transformative medicines,” said Bryan Stuart, Chief Executive Officer at Atavistik Bio. “We’re grateful to our investors for their continued support of our mission. We look forward to using the proceeds from this raise to advance our lead program into the clinic and progress our additional programs and platform.”

“Allostery continues to gain traction given its potential to modulate intractable targets and to offer better tolerated, more effective therapies for current sub-optimally treated diseases,” said John Josey, Ph.D., Venture Partner at The Column Group and Atavistik Bio’s Board Chair. “In a short period of time, Atavistik Bio has quickly identified novel allosteric binding pockets in a broad range of targets and built a deep discovery pipeline. We believe that Atavistik Bio’s differentiated approach to identify chemical matter against challenging and valuable targets presents a compelling opportunity to bring important new, allosteric medicines to patients across a broad spectrum of disease areas.”

Atavistik Bio seamlessly integrates its proprietary Atavistik Metabolite-Protein Screening (AMPS) technology with its AI-enabled discovery engine to rapidly advance programs from discovery into development. AMPS efficiently uncovers cryptic functional pockets not detectable with other techniques. It accomplishes this by leveraging metabolites, which are natural regulators of protein and RNA function in the body, as ‘bait’ to reveal otherwise hidden allosteric binding pockets on target proteins and functional sites on RNA. Atavistik Bio then applies its state-of-the-art, proprietary AI-enabled drug discovery engine to discover and design small molecules, enabling the rapid advancement of allosteric precision therapeutics.

Employing this integrated approach, Atavistik Bio has successfully and rapidly identified functional binding pockets for the development of small molecule therapeutics across a broad range of target classes, including kinases, enzymes, receptors, transcription factors, as well as protein complexes and RNA, and translated these insights into a robust discovery pipeline. The company’s internal efforts are focused on oncology and rare diseases. It intends to leverage partnerships to extend the reach of its platform to other therapeutic areas, including metabolic and cardiovascular disease, inflammation and immunology disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.

About Atavistik Bio

Atavistik Bio is focused on unlocking hidden functional pockets to discover transformative allosteric precision therapeutics to address serious unmet patient needs. By integrating our propriety screening technology using the body’s natural regulators, with our powerful AI-enabled drug discovery platform, we are able to efficiently identify novel, biologically relevant allosteric sites for protein or RNA targets, and rapidly advance structural insights into small molecule therapeutics design.

Media Contact:

Liz Melone
Melone Communications, LLC
liz@melonecomm.com

• Mr. Stuart brings more than 25 years of biopharma executive leadership, corporate strategy, and business development experience to guide Atavistik Bio’s advancing discovery pipeline
• Jeff Goater, interim CEO and venture partner at The Column Group, will continue to serve on Atavistik Bio’s Board of Directors
• Atavistik Bio is pioneering a systematic, scalable approach to revolutionize small molecule drug discovery by identifying and harnessing highly conserved protein-metabolite interactions

Cambridge, MA – July 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Atavistik Bio, a biotechnology company focused on developing transformative small molecule therapeutics by revolutionizing the discovery and interrogation of new allosteric protein-metabolite interactions with its AMPS platform, today announced the appointment of Bryan Stuart as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Director on the company’s Board. Mr. Stuart will succeed Jeff Goater, a venture partner at The Column Group, who has served as interim CEO of Atavistik Bio since January 2022 and will continue to serve as a Director on Atavistik Bio’s Board.

“We are delighted to welcome Bryan as CEO to steer the exciting growth ahead for Atavistik Bio,” said Dr. John Josey, Atavistik Bio’s Board Chair. “With Bryan’s proven track record stewarding candidates from the clinic to commercialization, we are confident he is the right person to lead Atavistik Bio into its next critical stage. We are extremely grateful to have had Jeff’s insightful leadership during the planned interim period and look forward to his continued contributions as a member of the Board.”

Mr. Stuart commented, “I am extremely excited to join Atavistik Bio as CEO. Atavistik is poised to be a true disruptor in small molecule drug discovery with the tremendous progress and validation of the AMPS platform. AMPS has now demonstrated a reproducible ability to interrogate protein-metabolite interactions to unlock functional allosteric binding sites, and then engineer novel small molecules to elicit the desired therapeutic effect. This creates the opportunity for tremendous impact across many diseases. I look forward to working with the Board and the exceptional Atavistik Bio team to continue the company’s mission of delivering transformative medicines to improve patients’ lives.”

Mr. Stuart was most recently CEO of Fulcrum Therapeutics, where he initially served as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Fulcrum, he served as president and CEO of Yarra Therapeutics (a subsidiary of Array BioPharma) and CEO of Kastle Therapeutics; both companies focused on developing therapies for rare and severe diseases. Previously, Mr. Stuart served as Chief Business Officer of Civitas Therapeutics (acquired by Acorda Therapeutics) and also led business development, corporate development and strategy at both EKR Therapeutics (acquired by Chiesi Farmaceutici) and Ovation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Lundbeck A/S). Mr. Stuart earned his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois.

“I’m proud of the remarkable progress that the Atavistik Bio team has made in such a short period,” said Mr. Goater. “The advancement of our precision medicine candidates for cancer and inborn errors of metabolism has created a tremendous opportunity to extend the reach of the AMPS platform in these therapeutic areas and many others. Bryan’s extensive corporate strategy and development experience further entrench him as an ideal leader for the company. I look forward to working with Bryan, the Atavistik Bio team, and my fellow Board members as the Atavistik Bio story continues to unfold.”

About Atavistik Bio

Atavistik Bio, located in Cambridge, MA, is pioneering a systematic, scalable approach to identify and harness highly conserved protein-metabolite interactions to revolutionize small molecule drug discovery. Combined, our AMPS and structure-based drug design platforms leverage advanced data analytics and AI to unlock functional allosteric binding sites and engineer novel, highly specific small molecule drugs to activate, inhibit or stabilize targets. Our breakthrough approach has the potential to deliver transformative medicines for patients across a broad range of diseases, with an initial internal development focus on precision medicines for cancer and inborn errors of metabolism.

For more information, visit atavistikbio.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Liz Melone
liz@melonecomm.com

• MIDAS (mass spectrometry integrated with equilibrium dialysis for the discovery of allostery systematically), in-licensed and industrialized by Atavistik Bio as the basis of AMPS, is the first technology platform to systematically identify protein-metabolite interactions.
• In the Science paper, MIDAS identified more than 800 protein-metabolite interactions, including many known and previously unknown interactions from diverse metabolic pathways.
• Building on the original technology, Atavistik Bio has incorporated advanced data analytics and AI across its AMPS and structure-based drug design platforms to reveal new disease-relevant allosteric binding sites and engineer highly specific drugs

Cambridge, MA – March 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Atavistik Bio, a biotechnology company focused on developing transformative small molecule therapeutics by revolutionizing the discovery and interrogation of new allosteric protein-metabolite interactions with its AMPS platform, today announced a new publication in the journal Science by Atavistik Bio co-founder Jared Rutter, Ph.D. describing the foundational technology upon which the company’s proprietary Atavistik Metabolite-Protein Screening (AMPS) platform is built.

Over millions of years, metabolites have evolved to be important regulators of protein function. They can activate, stabilize, or inhibit target proteins, often in an allosteric fashion, and can also dictate interactions across complex networks to influence diverse cellular processes. These highly conserved protein-metabolite interactions hold vast disease-relevant and therapeutically actionable information; however, they are frequently low affinity and have historically proven challenging to systematically discover.

The Science paper, entitled, “Protein-metabolite interactomics of carbohydrate metabolism reveal regulation of lactate dehydrogenase,” (Hicks et al.) describes the development and ability of MIDAS to identify these interactions. Together with postdoctoral fellow, Kevin Hicks, Ph.D., Dr. Rutter, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and HHMI Investigator at the University of Utah, developed the MIDAS technology.

“We have long known that protein-metabolite interactions drive critical cellular processes and, therefore, could hold significant therapeutic potential. However, the tools to effectively and systematically identify or interrogate these interactions have been limited,” said Dr. Rutter. “We’re pleased to describe for the first time in this Science manuscript the ability of the MIDAS technology to systematically identify and characterize the complex network of protein-metabolite interactions and their regulatory significance. Unlocking how these interactions enable cellular homeostasis may help inform data-driven therapeutic approaches to address cellular dysregulation that drives a broad range of diseases.”

Marion Dorsch, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer at Atavistik Bio, stated, “It’s very exciting to share details of our foundational technology with the broader scientific community, as we believe it has the potential to revolutionize small molecule drug discovery. The powerful insights described in the Science paper present just an initial understanding of this technology’s ultimate potential. With our AMPS and structure-based drug design platforms, we have layered in powerful data analytics and AI to dramatically augment the systematic, scalable application of this protein-metabolite screening technology to identify new allosteric binding sites and engineer highly specific novel small molecule modulators. We believe our approach will enable us to advance transformative therapeutics for patients across a broad range of diseases, starting with precision medicines for cancer and inborn errors of metabolism.”

In the Science publication, Drs. Rutter, Hicks and their colleagues’ analysis of 33 enzymes from human carbohydrate metabolism via MIDAS identified more than 800 protein-metabolite interactions, including known as well as many previously unknown interactions from diverse metabolic pathways. The researchers then functionally validated a subset of interactions, including the isoform-specific inhibition of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) by long-chain (LC) acyl-coenzyme A (CoA), revealing a novel interpathway regulation between fatty acid and carbohydrate metabolism and pointing to new ways to identify isoform-selective inhibitors for LDH. These findings are one example of the numerous highly conserved protein-metabolite interactions that regularly enforce homeostasis throughout the body, which could, in turn, lead to therapeutic approaches to correct for disease-related dysregulation.

About Atavistik Bio

Atavistik Bio, located in Cambridge, MA, is pioneering a systematic, scalable approach to identify and harness highly conserved protein-metabolite interactions to revolutionize small molecule drug discovery. Combined, our AMPS and structure-based drug design platforms leverage advanced data analytics and AI to unlock functional allosteric binding sites and engineer novel, highly specific small molecule drugs to activate, inhibit or stabilize targets. Our breakthrough approach has the potential to deliver transformative medicines for patients across a broad range of diseases, with an initial internal development focus on precision medicines for cancer and inborn errors of metabolism.

For more information, visit www.atavistikbio.com.

Media Contact

Liz Melone
liz@melonecomm.com

Proprietary AMPS platform enables the systematic and rapid interrogation of protein-metabolite interactions to reveal new, disease-relevant allosteric binding sites

Cambridge, MA – January 10, 2023 — Atavistik Bio, a biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing the discovery of new allosteric protein-metabolite interactions to develop novel small molecule drugs for cancer, inborn errors of metabolism and other serious diseases, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Plex Research, a company providing a novel artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug discovery platform. Atavistik Bio’s incorporation of Plex Research’s technology will enrich the informatics capabilities of its Atavistik Metabolite Protein Screening (AMPS) platform and accelerate its drug discovery pipeline.

Atavistik Bio’s scalable AMPS platform combines an extensive and continually expanding protein-metabolite database map (“the Interactome”), along with advanced informatics tools, deep expertise in chemistry, and computationally rich structure-based design to systematically identify and understand the role of protein-metabolite interactions across important biological and disease-relevant pathways to inform small molecule drug discovery.

Under the collaboration, Atavistik Bio will enhance its proprietary Interactome map with Plex Research’s cloud-based AI-powered drug discovery search engine of large and disparate data sources to reveal hidden connections between related metabolites and ligands, pathways, biomarkers, and disease-relevant biology. The integration of Atavistik Bio’s AMPS data with Plex Research’s platform will create a unique and customizable data analysis engine to rapidly enable novel insights for drug discovery.

“Allosteric interactions, which we know can present novel druggable nodes for intractable targets, historically have been difficult to discover. Using our AMPS platform, we are able to systematically and rapidly interrogate protein-metabolite interactions to reveal new, disease-relevant allosteric binding sites,” said Marion Dorsch, Ph.D., Atavistik Bio’s President and Chief Scientific Officer. “Fusing the enterprise-level capability of Plex’s access to large public databases with Atavistik’s proprietary data infrastructure has the potential to significantly augment the power of our AMPS platform and accelerate our efforts to drive the discovery of novel therapeutics for unmet patient needs.”

“Atavistik’s platform creates opportunities to drug proteins in new ways by uncovering previously unknown regulatory sites with potentially important roles in disease,” said Doug Selinger, President and CEO of Plex Research. “The breadth and depth of the Plex platform will provide important context for Atavistik’s AMPS data, which will enable better characterization of putative protein regulatory sites, ligand binding, and potential impacts on disease processes. The synergies between our technology platforms are compelling, and we’re excited to see where it will take us.”

About Atavistik Bio

Atavistik Bio is a biotechnology company that is harnessing the power of protein-metabolite interactions to add a new lens to drug discovery with the aim of transforming the lives of patients. By leveraging its optimized Atavistik Metabolite Protein Screening (AMPS) platform and computational approaches, Atavistik Bio aims to evaluate metabolite-protein interactions by screening proteins with their proprietary metabolite library to reveal where binding sites with biological function might exist. This will enable Atavistik Bio to build an extensive protein-metabolite database map (the “Interactome”) to reveal unique insights into the crosstalk between metabolite-protein pathways that were previously thought to be unrelated. Utilizing advanced informatics tools, deep expertise in chemistry and computationally rich structure-based drug design, Atavistik Bio will be able to identify and understand the role of these interactions across important biological and disease-relevant pathways to drive the discovery of novel therapeutics with an initial focus on inborn errors of metabolism and cancer. Atavistik Bio is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.atavistikbio.com.

About Plex Research

Plex Research has developed a novel form of artificial intelligence (AI) based on search engine algorithms which can derive new insights from massive amounts of diverse biomedical data. Plex’s platform works on minimally processed experimental data from numerous pharmacological and multi-omics sources, exposing hidden connections and enabling groundbreaking discoveries, with fully traceable provenance of all supporting data. Client proprietary data can be securely integrated into a dedicated instance of Plex, providing invaluable context, and allowing organizations to extract unparalleled value from their unique data assets.

Plex provides discovery services delivered by a team of highly experienced and multi-disciplinary scientists, as well as enterprise-level solutions built on its proprietary search engine AI technology. Plex Research is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.plexresearch.com.

Atavistik Bio Media Contact

Liz Melone
liz@melonecomm.com

Scientific Advisory Board Strengthens Atavistik Bio’s Mission of Harnessing the Power of Protein-Metabolite Interactions to add a New Lens to Drug Discovery

CAMBRIDGE, MA, September 20, 2022 — Atavistik Bio, a pre-clinical biotechnology company that is leveraging their scalable and systematic platform to identify novel regulatory sites on proteins to restore function in disease, announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) comprised of distinguished leaders in protein sciences, inborn errors of metabolism, and cancer.

“We are proud and honored to have these accomplished scientific leaders join our Scientific Advisory Board,” said Marion Dorsch, President and CSO of Atavistik Bio. “Together, they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience for Atavistik Bio as we leverage our powerful screening and analytics platforms to unlock the potential of protein-metabolite interactions with the goal to bring transformative therapies to patients. Atavistik Bio looks forward to the input of these outstanding scientists and their contribution to our research and development efforts. Feedback and collaboration with our SAB will be critical to advance our efforts to develop therapies to patients in need. It is a very exciting time for all of us at Atavistik Bio.”

The founding members of the Atavistik Bio Scientific Advisory Board are:

Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis is Chief of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism at UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) and Director of the Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program at Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UTSW (CRI). His laboratory studies the role of altered metabolic pathways in human diseases, including cancer and pediatric inborn errors of metabolism. Work from the DeBerardinis laboratory has produced new insights into disease mechanisms in numerous metabolic diseases, including by defining unexpected fuel preferences in human cancer and uncovering new metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer cells. Dr. DeBerardinis is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and has received numerous awards including the William K. Bowes, Jr. Award in Medical Genetics, the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Investigator Award, The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas’s Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine, and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians.

Dr. DeBerardinis received a BS in Biology from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia before earning MD and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. He completed his medical residency and post-doctoral training at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Pediatrics, Medical Genetics and Clinical Biochemical Genetics.

Dr. Jared Rutter is a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and holds the Dee Glen and Ida Smith Endowed Chair for Cancer Research at the University of Utah where he has been on the faculty since 2003. His laboratory has identified the functions of several previously uncharacterized mitochondrial proteins, including the discovery of the long-sought mitochondrial pyruvate carrier. This knowledge has demonstrated that this critical metabolic step is impaired in a variety of human diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, the Rutter lab is taking multiple approaches to understand how metabolic state influences cell fate and cell behavior decisions. Dr. Rutter has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2015 and serves as co-Director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Center at the University of Utah and co-Leader of the Nuclear Control of Cell Growth and Differentiation at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Dr. Rutter performed undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University and received his PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2001, working with Dr. Steve McKnight. After receiving his PhD, he spent 18 months as the Sara and Frank McKnight Independent Fellow of Biochemistry before joining the faculty at the University of Utah.

Karen Allen, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of Chemistry at Boston University. For over 25 years, she has led research teams at Boston University, in the Departments of Physiology and Biophysics at the School of Medicine, and Chemistry. She is also a Professor of Material Science and Engineering and on the faculty of the Bioinformatics program at Boston University. The structure-aided design approach in the Allen lab encompasses the use of macromolecular X-ray crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering, molecular modeling, and kinetics.

Karen received her B.S. degree in Biology, from Tufts University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University in the laboratory of the mechanistic enzymologist, Dr. Robert H. Abeles. Following her desire to see enzymes in action she pursued X-ray crystallography during postdoctoral studies as an American Cancer Society Fellow in the laboratory of Drs. Gregory A. Petsko and Dagmar Ringe.

Kivanc Birsoy, Ph.D. is a Chapman-Perelman Associate Professor at Rockefeller University. His research at Rockefeller focuses on how cancer cells rewire their metabolic pathways to adapt to environmental stresses during tumorigenesis and other pathological states. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Special Fellow award, Margaret and Herman Sokol Award, NIH Career Transition Award, Irma Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Trusts Award, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Foundation Scholar Award, March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Scholar Award, AACR NextGen award for Transformative Cancer Research, Searle Scholar, Pew-Stewart Scholarship for Cancer Research and NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Kivanc received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Genetics from Bilkent University in Turkey in 2004 and his Ph.D. from the Rockefeller University in 2009, where he studied the molecular genetics of obesity in the laboratory of Jeffrey Friedman. In 2010, he joined the laboratory of David Sabatini at the Whitehead Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he combined forward genetics and metabolomics approaches to understand how different cancer types rewire their metabolism to adapt nutrient deprived environments.

Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D. is the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group develops and applies chemical proteomic technologies for protein and drug discovery on a global scale and has particular interest in studying biochemical pathways in cancer and the nervous system. His honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ben is a co-founder of several biotechnology companies, including Activx Biosciences (acquired by Kyorin Pharmaceuticals), Abide Therapeutics (acquired by Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals), Vividion Therapeutics (Acquired by Bayer Pharmaceuticals), Boundless Bio, Kisbee Therapeutics, and Kojin Therapeutics.

Ben obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996, and joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997.

The SAB will be co-chaired by Dr. DeBerardinis and Dr. Rutter, the scientific founders of Atavistik Bio, and work closely with the company to advance their leading-edge metabolite protein screening platform discovery programs. “I’m delighted to be appointed Co-Chair of Atavistik Bio’s Scientific Advisory Board, and to be part of such a distinguished group of experts,” said Dr. DeBerardinis. “Together we aim to guide Atavistik Bio through the development of its pipeline while maximizing the potential of the company’s technology platform,” stated Dr. Rutter.

About Atavistik Bio

Atavistik Bio is a pre-clinical biotechnology company that is harnessing the power of protein-metabolite interactions to add a new lens to drug discovery with the aim of transforming the lives of patients. By leveraging its optimized Atavistik Metabolite Protein Screening (AMPS) platform and computational approaches, Atavistik Bio aims to evaluate metabolite-protein interactions by screening proteins with their proprietary metabolite library to determine where binding sites with biological relevance might exist. This will enable Atavistik Bio to build an extensive protein-metabolite database map (the “Interactome”) to reveal unique insights into the crosstalk between metabolite-protein pathways that were previously thought to be unrelated. Utilizing advanced informatics tools, deep expertise in chemistry and computationally rich structure-based drug design, Atavistik Bio will be able to identify and understand the role of these interactions across important biological and disease-relevant pathways to drive the discovery of novel therapeutics with an initial focus on inborn errors of metabolism and cancer. Atavistik Bio is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.atavistikbio.com.

Contact

Meriel McCaffery
Ford Hutman Media
Meriel@fordhutmanmedia.com
315-491-7335

 

The Column Group led funding, joined by Lux Capital, and Nextech Invest, Ltd.
Financing to advance Atavistik’s drug discovery platform

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE) — Atavistik Bio (“Atavistik”, “Company”), a pre-clinical biotechnology company pioneering the identification of metabolite-protein interactions that have the potential to lead to the discovery and development of first-in-class drug candidates powered by distinct allosteric control mechanisms, announced today that the Company had completed a $60 million Series A financing round. The financing was led by The Column Group and joined by Lux Capital, and Nextech Invest, Ltd.

“Atavistik has positioned itself at the forefront of allosteric regulated metabolic drug discovery, a novel and exciting new area of drug discovery and medicine, that has immense potential”

The new financing will support development of Atavastik’s drug discovery platform, and future identification of select drug candidates based on deep knowledge of disease relevant pathways that have evolved over millions of years by nature to be allosterically regulated by metabolites.

The Company will be helmed by John A. Josey, PhD, Acting CEO of Atavistik Bio, who was formerly CEO at Peloton Therapeutics, which was acquired by Merck in 2019. Dr. Josey is an experienced CEO with a long track record of novel drug discovery. Marion Dorsch, PhD, has been appointed President and CSO. Dr. Dorsch is a highly accomplished scientist and senior executive with more than twenty years of biotech and pharma experience in oncology, inflammation and rare genetic diseases. She is known for her innovative drug discovery that has contributed to several accelerated drug approvals in oncology. Prior to this role, Dr. Dorsch was CSO at Blueprint Medicines.

“Our unique approach marries a validated platform with structure-aided drug design capabilities and cutting-edge insights into the regulation of metabolic systems, which will be applied to genetically validated targets in metabolic disease and cancer,” said John A. Josey, PhD, CEO of Atavistik Bio and Venture Partner at The Column Group. “We are delighted to gain the support of such an esteemed collection of venture investors in our quest to find first-in-class drug compounds in metabolic diseases and cancer.”

Atavistik was co-founded by prominent scientific investigators and members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Atavistik’s platform is built on technology developed by co-founder Jared Rutter, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah. Professor Rutter is well-known for his work regarding novel protein metabolite interactions that has resulted in identification of novel allosteric regulatory sites for proteins of interest in disease. Additionally, co-founder Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis, MD, PhD is a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is a leading medical geneticist with a deep understanding of human metabolism with a focus on pediatrics. Dr. DeBerardinis still attends to patients and has a unique understanding of the high unmet need in this critical area of human health. The co-founders will stay closely involved with the scientific direction at Atavistik as advisors.

“Atavistik has a differentiated platform that has tremendous potential to identify novel regulatory sites to tackle the underlying cause of many diseases,” said Marion Dorsch, PhD, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Atavistik Bio. “Our technology was founded by a leading metabolism expert and validated by the discovery of numerous known and novel metabolite-protein interactions. We look forward to building on this technology and utilizing our drug discovery platform to identify first-in-class drug candidates.”

“Atavistik has positioned itself at the forefront of allosteric regulated metabolic drug discovery, a novel and exciting new area of drug discovery and medicine, that has immense potential,” said Tim Kutzkey, Managing Partner at The Column Group and Atavistik Bio board member. “The company is built around Marion’s drug-discovery expertise and successful track record of bringing experimental medicines to market quickly. She will be joined by a team of experts in metabolism and a robust investment syndicate that will support Atavistik’s scientific focus.”

Atavistik has opened a new office in Cambridge at 38 Sidney St. To learn more, please visit AtavistikBio.com.

About Atavistik Bio

Atavistik Bio (Atavistik) is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the identification of allosteric small molecule-protein interactions that have the potential to lead to the discovery and future clinical development of first-in-class drug compounds within oncology and metabolic diseases. Atavistik was founded by prominent scientists who are considered among the leading authorities in cell biology, cancer cell biology and cell metabolism. Led by an experienced management team and advisors, plus a robust investment syndicate, Atavistik is positioned to deliver transformational science to ultimately improve patient care. Learn more at AtavistikBio.com.

About The Column Group

The Column Group (TCG) is a leading venture capital firm based in San Francisco that seeks to partner with exceptional scientific founders, entrepreneurs, executives, and investment organizations with a shared vision for building the next generation of drug discovery and development companies. TCG invests in disease-focused drug discovery companies with the potential to become leaders in their respective fields. These companies are strongly supported by the unique and complimentary skill sets of TCG’s team, which includes prominent authorities in the scientific, operational, and financial arenas. For more information, please visit https://www.thecolumngroup.com/

About Lux Capital

Lux Capital invests in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. They partner with iconoclastic inventors challenging the status quo and the laws of nature to bring their futuristic ideas to life. Over the past two decades, Lux has expanded from its New York City roots to Silicon Valley, and built a $4 billion AUM firm of more than 30 full-time professionals, with the versatility to invest at any stage.

About Nextech Invest, Ltd.

The global oncology specialist venture capital firm Nextech Invest Ltd., established in 1998 in Zurich, Switzerland, focuses on investing in cancer companies. Supported by a Scientific Advisory Board of seven oncologists chaired by Prof. Dr. David Livingston, Deputy Director Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Nextech Invest is investing in emerging companies with pioneering innovations in cancer research that have compounds entering clinical trials. The other members of the Scientific Advisory Board are: Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Altmann, Prof. Dr. Glenn Dranoff, Prof. Dr. William Kaelin, Prof. Dr. Sir Bruce Ponder, Dr. Charles Sawyers and Prof. Dr. Paul Workman. Nextech Invest is a longstanding member of leading networks in private equity, such as EVCA, SECA and EVPA. Nextech Invest works closely with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).

 

Contacts

Rachel Ford Hutman
Ford Hutman Media
Rachel@fordhutmanmedia.com
301-801-5540