Cloverleaf Bio has closed an upsized and oversubscribed $33 million seed financing to advance its engineered transfer RNA, or tRNA, therapeutic platform and develop new treatments for cancer. The round was led by 4BIO Capital and included strategic investments from AbbVie Ventures, Eli Lilly and Company, and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, along with Draper Associates, Mission BioCapital and American Cancer Society BrightEdge.
Cloverleaf is developing a new class of engineered tRNA-based therapeutic payloads designed to selectively target biological mechanisms that cancer cells become unusually dependent on as they proliferate.
The proceeds will support the development of the company’s two lead programs. One is an inhibitory tRNA asset targeting hepatocellular carcinoma, which Cloverleaf plans to advance through early clinical testing. The second is an antibody-tRNA conjugate targeting colorectal cancer, which will progress through preclinical development.
Cloverleaf’s platform is designed around selective and durable inhibition of multiple RNA-modifying enzymes. The company believes this approach can exploit dependencies that are more pronounced in cancer cells than in healthy tissue.
Its lead compound, CLB-001, has demonstrated significantly greater potency and selectivity for cancer cells over healthy cells in preclinical studies.
The compound also retained activity in cancer cell lines resistant to frontline chemotherapy and current-generation antibody-drug conjugate payloads. Cloverleaf said CLB-001 outperformed frontline standards of care in both hepatocellular carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma models at substantially lower doses.
Animal tolerability studies showed no increases in markers of liver damage and no signs of systemic toxicity across the tested dose range.
The financing attracted strategic participation from venture arms associated with three major pharmaceutical companies at the preclinical stage, reflecting industry interest in Cloverleaf’s approach to RNA therapeutics.
Cloverleaf is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, and was spun out of Yale University. Its early research was supported in part by funding from the National Cancer Institute.
The company was founded by Austin Draycott, Ph.D., CEO; Cole Lewis, Ph.D., CSO; and Wendy Gilbert, Ph.D., Scientific Advisory Board Chair.
Beyond oncology, Cloverleaf believes its tunable tRNA platform could eventually be applicable to other disease areas, including neurodegenerative and fibrotic diseases.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are excited to secure this financing to advance a new generation of cancer therapeutics. We’re grateful to 4BIO Capital for leading this round, and to attract major strategic investors, including AbbVie Ventures, Lilly, and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund at this stage reflects the level of scientific interest in this approach. We look forward to delivering the data that will test that conviction. We would also like to acknowledge the early support Cloverleaf received from the National Cancer Institute Small Business Innovation Research / Small Business Technology Transfer program. Federally funded research was foundational to getting this platform off the ground, and we’re proud to build on that public investment as we move toward the clinic.”
Austin Draycott, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Cloverleaf Bio
“Cloverleaf reflects the core thesis of 4BIO: backing transformative frontier science that has the potential to become an entirely new class of cancer therapeutics with applicability to every major cancer of unmet need. The team at Cloverleaf have built a highly promising platform from a first-principles insight into a mechanism that the field has largely taken for granted for sixty years. The preclinical data on potency and selectivity is compelling, and the strategic interest from three major pharma venture arms at seed reflects how seriously the broader industry is taking this approach. We are proud to lead this round and look forward to supporting the team as they advance toward the clinic.”
Dima Kuzmin, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at 4BIO Capital
“Cloverleaf’s platform reflects the kind of bold and novel scientific approaches we seek to advance. Our support of Cloverleaf, from its beginnings as a Yale spinout through its current efforts to develop next-generation RNA therapeutics, reflects how AbbVie Ventures works with emerging companies. Beyond investing capital, we engage as dedicated collaborators early on, bringing scientific and operational expertise to help turn promising science into potential new therapies.”
Christina Vorvis, Ph.D., Director at AbbVie Ventures
“Cloverleaf combines deep expertise in RNA biology with a highly innovative approach to tackling cancer. We believe its engineered tRNA platform has the potential to create an important new class of cancer medicines, and we are excited to support the company as it advances toward the clinic.”
Matthias Samwer, Director at Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund
