In one of the biggest fundraising rounds for a startup in the Seattle area in recent years, Tune Therapeutics, a biotech business with headquarters in Durham, North Carolina, and Seattle, raised $175 million.
Tune involves controlling gene expression without changing the DNA sequence itself by employing a cutting-edge technique known as epigenetic editing.
The business, which is researching an epigenetic cure for chronic Hepatitis B, just began its first clinical trials in Hong Kong and New Zealand. It is the primary cause of liver cancer and affects over 250 million individuals worldwide. These investigations will be supported by the new funds.
This is an extremely new field. Tune’s co-founder and chief financial officer, Akira Matsuno, described this as “sort of the evolution of genetic medicines.”
The method tackles the reality that a lot of illnesses and ailments are not brought on by a genetic mutation. Rather, the disorders may result from a gene’s improper control, which produces either too much or too little protein.
Tune targets the malfunctioning gene with a “effector” using technologies from targeted genetics. For a predetermined period of time, the effector can change the behavior of the gene. In order to administer the vaccine, Tune’s method also makes use of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology, which is now widely utilized in COVID vaccinations.
According to Matsuno, “we have the advantage of standing on the shoulders of a lot of the cell and genomic medicine companies that have grown over the last 15 years or so.”
Founded in 2020, Tune employs 80 people, who are split equally between its Durham and Seattle labs.
Charles Gersbach, a co-founder of Tune, did research at Duke University that served as the foundation for the startup’s technology. In addition, Gersbach serves as a scientific advisor and co-founder at two other biotech businesses in North Carolina.
Matsuno formerly held vice president positions at Juno Therapeutics and was the chief financial officer and head of corporate development at Lyell Immunopharma in the Seattle area.
The third co-founder of Tune and a member of its scientific advisory board is Fyodor Urnov. Urnov was an associate director of Seattle’s Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences before becoming a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
TEMPO is a genetic tuning platform developed by Tune that can be used to treat a variety of medical ailments.
Through 2025, Tune will continue to treat patients and enroll them in its Hepatitis B clinical trials. Matsuno was uncertain about the expected turnaround time due to the novelty of the technique. Additionally, the business is unsure of when it will start testing its treatment in the United States.
In previous studies, Tune showed that their method could lower the LDL cholesterol levels in non-human primates by repressing a particular gene. An ongoing reduction that has persisted for over two years was achieved with a single therapy.
In addition to Hepatitis B, the business hopes to use its treatment for liver diseases. It’s also investigating the possibility of reprogramming a cell’s identity by using epigenetic editing to target an unhealthy cell and encourage it to return to a healthy state.
In total, the company has raised over $200 million from investors. Hevolution Foundation, Yosemite, Regeneron Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates led the most recent Series B round.
Matsuno stated that the start of the clinical trials is “exciting, certainly, for the company.” However, I’m more enthusiastic about the patients and the field as a whole. We’re hoping it’s a positive move.
Borealis Biosciences raised $180 million, Outpace Bio received $144 million, and Kestra Medical Technologies raised $196 million in other significant fundraising rounds for health-related firms in the Pacific Northwest.
