Light Horse Therapeutics – a first-in-class small molecule therapeutics developer – announced a $62 million Series A funding round. This funding was led by founding investor Versant Ventures and included Mubadala Capital and three strategic investors: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Taiho Ventures, and AbbVie. And Light Horse is the latest company started by Versant’s Inception Discovery Engine, and its scientific co-founders are Brian Liau, PhD, Ben Cravatt, PhD, and Nathanael Gray, PhD.
Light Horse has created a proprietary platform that uncovers novel functional sites in disease-critical targets. And the company integrated distinct approaches for building this precision genetic editing-based platform that interrogates proteins in their native environment, providing a faster discovery of clinical candidates. And the company’s technology turns conventional drug discovery on its head by first identifying novel functional domains and then screening for chemistry. This function-first approach is the converse of traditional “screening-first” methodologies.
Headed by Light Horse’s CSO, Laure Escoubet, PhD, the Light Horse team has translated this methodology into first-in-class preclinical programs against high-value oncology targets and has enabled a discovery collaboration with Novartis that is described in a separate press release issued today. And Light Horse internal programs are now progressing through preclinical testing, paving the way toward developing disruptive therapies.
Light Horse is headed by experienced executives with oncology drug discovery and development expertise. And they are complemented by scientific founders who are world leaders in chemoproteomics and chemical biology.
1.) Thomas Daniel, MD, Chairman – Dr. Daniel has more than 25 years of experience leading and building research and development organizations and leading investments in new companies at the forefront of innovative application of science to healthcare. He served as President of Global Research and Early Development at Celgene and previously held senior leadership roles at AmbRx, Amgen, and Immunex.
2.) Markus Renschler, MD, CEO – Dr. Renschler is a proven biotechnology executive with over 25 years of experience building successful companies. Before Light Horse, he was President and CEO of Cyteir Therapeutics, leading it from a private discovery-stage startup to a publicly traded clinical-stage company. Before Cyteir, he held leading roles in clinical R&D, business development, and medical affairs at Celgene, Pharmion, and Pharmacyclics, where he helped to develop and/or launch some of the most successful cancer drugs approved to date.
3.) Laure Escoubet, PhD, CSO – Dr. Escoubet has almost 20 years of experience in building successful drug discovery teams and driving drug discovery programs into the clinic. Prior experiences include Vice President, Biology, at Zentalis, Head of Epigenetic Drug Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb/Celgene and other leading roles in early drug discovery in oncology.
4.) Brian Liau, PhD, scientific co-founder – Dr. Liau is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. His research group develops chemical genomic approaches to interrogate the mechanisms of gene regulatory complexes and their promise as therapeutic targets.
5.) Ben Cravatt, PhD, scientific co-founder – Dr. Cravatt is the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research. His research group develops and applies chemical proteomic technologies for protein and drug discovery on a global scale and has a particular interest in studying biochemical pathways in the nervous system and cancer. Dr. Cravatt is a co-founder of multiple successful biotech companies.
6.) Nathanael Gray, PhD, scientific co-founder – Dr. Gray is the Krishnan-Shah Family Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford, Co-Director of Cancer Drug Discovery Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Program, Member of Chem-H, and Program Leader for Small Molecule Drug Discovery for the Innovative Medicines Accelerator. His research uses the tools of synthetic chemistry, protein biochemistry, and cancer biology to discover and validate new strategies for the inhibition of cancer targets.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are very impressed with Light Horse’s chemical genomics capabilities to rapidly investigate protein complexes at scale and to uncover unprecedented functional sites in high-value targets. We believe the talented team at Light Horse and its technology will enable a pipeline of first-in-class drug candidates.”
– Rami Hannoush, PhD, venture partner at Versant and a Light Horse board member
“We have a unique capability to interrogate proteins and pathways, identifying functionally critical sites that can drive the development of groundbreaking first-in-class therapies. Our initial focus addresses high-value, historically challenging oncology targets with the opportunity to apply the technology to other therapeutic areas in the future.”
– Light Horse CEO Markus Renschler, MD
“Light Horse has deep scientific talent, a very experienced management team, and a strong syndicate of strategic and institutional investors to enhance its delivery of exceptional drug candidates addressing unmet medical need.”
– Dr. Daniel
