Function Oncology – a precision medicine company advancing a CRISPR-powered personalized functional genomics platform to transform the future of targeted cancer treatment – announced its launch with $28 million in Series A financing. The funding was led by a16z and Section 32, with participation from Casdin Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.
The company is utilizing a new CRISPR-enabled platform to profile and understand cancer in unprecedented and patient-specific detail. And by moving beyond traditional gene sequencing to measuring gene function, the company aims to identify optimal therapeutic opportunities for cancer patients and advance the next generation of targeted cancer treatments.
Function Oncology’s functional genomics platform utilizes CRISPR-based gene modulation directly in patient clinical samples, enabling personalized, comprehensive profiling of each patients’ tumors to uncover drug target dependencies that cannot be fully identified by conventional genomic profiling. And these patient-specific insights may be used to produce tailored treatment strategies and in aggregate will ultimately power the development of new therapies against known or novel cancer drivers.
Function Oncology was founded by expert scientists and has assembled a world-class team of leaders in cancer diagnostics, drug development and company building.
Management Team:
- Srinath Sampath, M.D., Ph.D., MPhil, co-founder and chief executive officer
- Srihari Sampath, M.D., Ph.D., MPhil, co-founder and chief scientific officer
- Christian Schmedt, Ph.D., co-founder and chief technology officer
- Yali Li, Ph.D., chief data officer
- Ryan Pinto, Ph.D., MBA, vice president, business development
Advisors:
- William Hahn, M.D., Ph.D., William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School
- David B. Solit, M.D., Geoffrey Beene Chair; director, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Board of Directors:
- Vineeta Agarwala, M.D., Ph.D., general partner, a16z and former director of product management at Flatiron Health
- Steve Kafka, Ph.D., managing partner, Section 32; former chief executive officer of Thrive Earlier Detection (acquired by Exact Sciences) and former president and chief operating officer of Foundation Medicine (acquired by Roche)
- Srinath Sampath, M.D., Ph.D., MPhil, co-founder and chief executive officer
- Srihari Sampath, M.D., Ph.D., MPhil, co-founder and chief scientific officer
- Christian Schmedt, Ph.D., co-founder and chief technology officer
- Ryan Blicker, CFA, research analyst, Casdin Capital (board observer)
- Mike Pellini, M.D., managing partner, Section 32 and former chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine (acquired by Roche) (board observer)
KEY QUOTES:
“Conventional next-generation sequencing approaches have marked a revolution in cancer diagnostics and treatment, but time has proven that this is only effective for a small subset of drugs and targets, leaving the majority of patients without meaningful therapeutic options. We believe that the next level of precision oncology will be to move beyond gene sequence, to gene function. Our CRISPR-powered personalized functional genomics platform allows, for the first time, efficient, scalable and individualized assessment of drug target vulnerabilities directly in patient tumor samples. Moving towards ground state truth on target dependence allows precision medicine beyond what sequencing can access. It also allows us to identify the non-mutated “hidden” drug targets to power the next wave of transformative drug development.”
– Srinath Sampath, M.D., Ph.D., MPhil, co-founder and chief executive officer of Function Oncology
“The field of precision oncology continues to undergo a remarkable, technology-driven transformation. Function Oncology’s CRISPR-based platform has the potential to further accelerate this entire field beyond the limitations of conventional genomics and unlock a potentially transformative new era of cancer treatment and drug development.”
– Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
“This is a powerful new platform that has potential for both diagnostic and therapeutic clinical applications. These applications range from accelerating target identification and validation, to producing unprecedented insights to enroll the right patients in clinical trials, to dramatically expanding the impact of existing drugs and surfacing novel cancer targets for drug development. This is a remarkable foundation upon which to create a true, next-generation precision medicine company.”
– Steve Kafka, Ph.D., managing partner at Section 32
