Talus Bioscience, a drug discovery company launched by a team of scientific leaders in proteomics, biochemistry, and machine learning, announced $11.2 million in new venture funding. The seed+ round was led by Two Bear Capital, with participation from WRF Capital, NFX, YC Continuity Fund, Funders Club VC, and BoxOne Ventures.
This funding will be invested to advance Talus Bio’s therapeutic programs, including Brachyury-driven cancers and an undruggable transcription factor implicated in prostate cancer. And it will also accelerate the expansion of the company’s proprietary Multiplexed Assays for the Rational Modulation Of Transcription Factors (MARMOT) platform.
MARMOT utilizes new AI models trained on Talus Bio’s dataset for transcription factor activity, which is currently the largest in the world. And MARMOT enables scientists to rapidly identify optimal candidates from billions of compounds, replacing time-consuming high-throughput screens – which have historically failed for transcription factors and are limited to millions of compounds. Through MARMOT, machine learning models discover and optimize modulators for any given transcription factor target, enabling the massive acceleration of discovery screening in live, unmodified human cells where targets fold and function properly.
The transcription factors are proteins that regulate the genome by binding to DNA and orchestrating which genes are turned on or off at any given time. And when they go amiss, they often drive cancer and other disease processes like diabetes, inflammatory diseases, fibrosis, and neurological conditions.
So far, Talus Bio has secured six non-dilutive grant awards exceeding $7.3 million, along with $19.7 million in venture funding, including this latest round.
J. Seth Strattan, PhD, General Partner at Two Bear Capital, will also gain a seat on the Talus Bio board in conjunction with the financing.
KEY QUOTES:
“This new funding from our exceptional partners validates and supports our work producing the first AI model to discover and optimize new modulators of any transcription factor. With our growing team of leading data scientists, we can use tens of millions of data points generated from the MARMOT platform to predict the best places to look for new molecules to block disease-causing transcription factors. We’re just getting started as we source new partners to help advance the dozens of promising transcription factor candidates we have discovered to date.”
- Talus Bioscience CEO and Co-Founder Alex Federation, PhD
“Talus Bio’s platform incorporates advances in chemistry, proteomics and computational biology to generate a dataset that was previously impossible. The scale, comprehensiveness, and efficiency with which they can target transcription factors gives their AI approach a distinct advantage and has already generated a robust list of hits against attractive drug targets. We’re thrilled to be working with this exceptional team as they pursue both partnerships and internal development of these exciting programs which have the potential to redefine how we treat complex diseases and improve patient outcomes globally.”
• ⁃ Avery Sonnenberg, PhD, Principal at lead investor Two Bear Capital
