Tune Therapeutics launches with $40M in funding, aims to fine-tune activity of genes in cells
- ByStartupStory | December 7, 2021
A new biotech startup with operations in Seattle and Durham, N.C., has launched with $40 million in new funding and a leadership team peppered with veterans of Seattle cell therapy biotechs.
Tune Therapeutics is deploying technology to fine-tune the activity of genes in cells. The company has developed a proprietary platform called TEMPO that operates as an epigenomic therapy, according to a statement. Epigenomics is a broad term typically applied to the machinery in cells that organizes how DNA is packaged, which affects gene activity.
Genetic diseases, cancers, and other conditions can result when gene activity is too high or low. TEMPO can “locate” epigenomic elements involved in disease, and it can tune the activity of genes or gene networks.
The company aims to take its tools “from proof of concept in rare, single-gene disorders to common conditions that aren’t linked to a single gene mutation – but are treatable through epigenomic control,” said Charles Gersbach, acting chief scientific officer and biomedical engineering professor at Duke University, in the statement.
Gersbach co-founded the company with president and CFO Akira Matsuno and Fyodor Urnov, chair of the scientific advisory board. Urnov is a professor of genetics, genomics, and development at the University of California, Berkeley and previously led discovery and translational research at Sangamo Therapeutics.
Matsuno is formerly head of corporate development at Lyell Immunopharma, a gene and cell therapy company with a presence in Seattle that went public this year. He is also a former program lead at Seattle’s flagship cell therapy biotech, Juno Therapeutics, which was acquired by Celgene in a multibillion dollar deal in 2018.
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