Shennon Biotechnologies has raised $12 million in new financing to advance its precision immunotherapy platform and emerging oncology pipeline while appointing biotechnology industry veteran Cyril Konto, M.D., as Chief Executive Officer. This financing was backed by Future Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Samos Investments, Atypical Ventures and Saras Capital, with continued participation from existing investors DCVC, Foundation Capital and AV8 Ventures. And the round brings ShennonBio’s total capital raised to $25 million.
The company plans to use the new financing to continue developing its integrated technology platform and to advance three newly disclosed T-cell engager programs targeting small-cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Konto succeeds company founder Li Sun, Ph.D., who will transition from CEO to President and Chief Technology Officer. Sun will continue to lead ShennonBio’s scientific strategy, technology development, and pipeline innovation.
The leadership change marks ShennonBio’s transition from building its discovery platform toward development-stage execution as it moves its initial therapeutic programs closer to the clinic.
Founded in 2021, ShennonBio has developed a technology platform spanning target discovery, ultra-high-throughput functional screening, computational binder prediction and optimization, and AI-enabled safety assessment.
The company has also established approximately 6,000 square feet of laboratory space in San Francisco near UCSF Mission Bay and built proprietary datasets using fresh tumor samples obtained through relationships with hospitals and academic institutions.
ShennonBio’s platform is designed to support both antibody- and TCR-based T-cell engagers.
Antibody-based T-cell engagers can target antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells, while TCR-based T-cell engagers are designed to potentially recognize intracellular cancer antigens presented by HLA.
The company believes using both approaches can significantly expand the range of cancer targets addressable through T-cell engager therapies.
ShennonBio’s technology engine includes four core proprietary platforms.
- PINTRA uses proprietary human tumor datasets and computational methods to identify differentiated surface and intracellular therapeutic targets.
- TCELERATOR is an ultra-high-throughput functional screening platform capable of evaluating more than 10 million single-cell interactions simultaneously and screening millions of therapeutic candidates.
- AFFINIS is a computational platform designed to predict, design and optimize antibody binders and T-cell receptors.
- SERIS is an AI-enabled safety platform intended to identify potential off-target cross-reactivity earlier in the therapeutic development process.
Together, the technologies are designed to connect target identification, functional screening, therapeutic optimization and safety assessment within a single discovery and development system.
ShennonBio has also assembled proprietary human data encompassing more than 10,000 tumor samples, more than 11 million single cells and a substantial collection of T-cell receptor sequences.
The company continues expanding those datasets through relationships involving more than 15 institutions and multiple cancer types and other diseases.
ShennonBio has now translated the platform into three initial oncology programs.
SBT-121 is a dual-targeting trispecific antibody-based T-cell engager being developed for small cell lung cancer.
SBT-201 is an antibody-based T-cell engager being developed for ovarian cancer.
SBT-425 is a TCR-based T-cell engager being developed for hepatocellular carcinoma.
The programs are intended to demonstrate ShennonBio’s strategy of combining established T-cell engager biology with its proprietary discovery, screening and computational technologies to identify differentiated opportunities in solid tumors.
Konto brings more than 20 years of experience spanning oncology drug development, biotechnology company building and strategic transactions.
Most recently, he served as President and CEO of Ichnos Glenmark Innovation, where he led a strategic and operational transformation, focused the company’s portfolio around oncology and expanded its multispecific therapeutics franchise.
During his tenure, Ichnos Glenmark Innovation completed three external partnerships, including an agreement with AbbVie involving a Phase 1 trispecific T-cell engager.
That agreement included $700 million in upfront payments and as much as $1.9 billion in total potential value plus royalties.
Konto previously held senior oncology development leadership positions at Allogene Therapeutics, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Over the next two years, ShennonBio plans to advance a development candidate toward an Investigational New Drug filing and Phase 1 clinical development.
The company also intends to pursue licensing opportunities for selected therapeutic programs and explore partnerships around its platform capabilities, including binder prediction and generation, clinical toxicity prediction and access to its proprietary datasets.
The new financing, CEO transition and disclosure of the company’s first three oncology programs represent a broader move by ShennonBio from platform-building toward clinical and commercial execution.
KEY QUOTES:
“ShennonBio was founded to address fundamental challenges that have limited the development of precision immunotherapies, from identifying differentiated targets and highly functional therapeutic binders to predicting potential safety risks before candidates reach the clinic. We have built an integrated technology platform, generated proprietary human datasets and begun translating those capabilities into a pipeline of precision immunotherapies. With $25 million raised to date, and Cyril joining as CEO, we are entering an important new stage for ShennonBio as we advance our first TCE programs toward the clinic.”
Li Sun, Ph.D., Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer of Shennon Biotechnologies
“ShennonBio has spent the last several years building a differentiated foundation spanning proprietary human data, target discovery, functional screening, therapeutic design and safety prediction. What attracted me to the Company is the opportunity to translate those capabilities into a new generation of precision immunotherapies. I look forward to working closely with Li and the team to advance our pipeline toward the clinic, establish strategic partnerships and build ShennonBio for its next stage of growth.”
Cyril Konto, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Shennon Biotechnologies
