Quench Bio, a company leveraging new insights into gasdermin biology and innate immunology to develop medicines for severe inflammatory diseases, today announced the completion of a $50 million Series A financing led by RA Capital Management (“RA Capital”), with participation from new Investor Abbvie Ventures. Atlas Venture (“Atlas”) and Arix Bioscience plc (“Arix”, LSE: ARIX) who co-founded and seeded the company, also participated in the Series A. Quench Bio has incubated at Atlas since inception.
Led by a team of drug developers and scientists with deep experience in inflammation and small molecule drug discovery, Quench Bio’s lead therapeutic approach centers on inhibiting Gasdermin D, which has been recently discovered as a key target at the core of multiple inflammatory cell death pathways, including pyroptosis and NETosis. When pyroptosis or NETosis pathways are activated, gasdermin is processed and forms lytic pores on the cell membrane, allowing release of inflammatory cytokines, alarmins, DNA and NETs. Pyroptosis and NETosis are associated with numerous inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), among others.
“Targeting gasdermin provides a unique therapeutic opportunity, as there are currently no marketed therapies inhibiting inflammatory cell death,” said Samantha Truex, CEO of Quench Bio. “Unlike approaches that target individual inflammasomes or cytokines, by targeting gasdermin, we aim to simultaneously inhibit multiple inflammatory cell death pathways that drive severe inflammatory diseases.”
“We are excited about Quench Bio’s first-in-class approach to potentially enable effective treatments for important autoimmune diseases with significant unmet medical need and we look forward to supporting this exceptional team as they pioneer modulation of gasdermin biology, an important and promising novel target in inflammation,” said Josh Resnick, M.D., Managing Director and co-head of Ventures at RA Capital, who will join the Quench Bio board as a new director alongside Adam Houghton, Head of AbbVie Ventures. Other board members include Samantha Truex as CEO, Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture, Jonathan Tobin of Arix Bioscience, Herbert Waldmann, Director at the Max Planck Institute and Jo Viney, President, CSO and Co-Founder of Pandion Therapeutics.
“Gasdermin inhibitors have the potential for impact across a broad range of indications, including severe inflammatory diseases with few current treatment options,” said Bruce Booth, DPhil, Quench Bio board chairman and partner at Atlas Venture. “Having assembled a world-class team of leaders in drug discovery, inflammation and gasdermin biology, as well as a renowned board and advisory team, Quench Bio is well-positioned to harness this potential to discover new medicines for these patients.”
Quench Bio was founded in 2018 by Atlas, Arix, Mark Tebbe, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer, and Mike Nolan, Ph.D., Head of Biology, together with Arturo Zychlinsky and Herbert Waldmann, both Directors at The Max Planck Institute who collaborated with the Lead Discovery Center on inhibitors of NETosis and gasdermin.
Source: Quench Bio
Quench Bio is a biotechnology company leveraging new insights into gasdermin biology and innate immunity to develop medicines for severe inflammatory diseases. Quench’s lead compounds target and inhibit the pore-forming protein Gasdermin D, a central player in both pyroptosis and NETosis pathways that mediates the release of inflammatory cytokines, alarmins, DNA and NETs. Quench Bio launched in January 2020 with $50 million from leading life science investors including Atlas Venture, Arix Bioscience, RA Capital and AbbVie Ventures. To learn more, visit please visit www.quenchbio.com.