Our investment in Alternative Bio

Alternative Bio Inc. ("ABio"), a privately held biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics targeting a previously untapped class of post-translational modifying enzymes announced today its $15 million Series Seed financing. Eight Roads Ventures together with F-Prime and Sequoia China Seed Fund co-led the deal. The funds will be used to leverage an innovative discovery platform and advance the company's lead drug candidates to treat some of the most intractable cancers.

 

Alternative Bio is co-founded by world-renowned scientists with expertise in the areas of signaling, gene expression regulation, cancer biology, and drug discovery. The scientific co-founders are Fei Lan, Ph.D., Professor & Vice Dean of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Fudan University; Yang Shi, Ph.D., Professor of Epigenetics, Oxford University and the Ludwig Cancer Research Institute, and member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine; and Or Gozani, M.D., Ph.D., the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology at Stanford University. Drs. Lan, Shi and Gozani have published over 400 papers, including dozens of high impact studies with importance for human health and disease such as the seminal discovery from Dr. Shi's group revealing LSD1 as a methyl eraser, overturning a long-held dogma in the field and establishing the dynamic nature of methylation signaling.

 

Research and insights from the co-founders' labs have previously led to the launch of several biotech companies, including Constellation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by MorphoSys in 2021 for USD 1.7 Billion), with Dr. Shi as scientific co-founder and Dr. Lan as a founding scientist; K36 Therapeutics, with Drs. Gozani and Shi as scientific co-founders; and EpiCypher, Inc, with Dr. Gozani as a co-founder.

 

Xin Liu, Partner at Eight Roads, said: " There is remarkable potential to translate the three world-renowned scientists' leading-edge discoveries in the area of post-translational modification into breakthrough therapies. Eight Roads Ventures together with F-Prime Capital aim to work with Alternative Bio to drive strong momentum advancing a novel class of drugs by translating ground-breaking biology into life-changing medicines for patients."

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