Backing a ‘Bionic’ Drive to Uncover Hidden Disease Drivers

Grove Biopharma, a private biotechnology company pioneering its Bionic Biologics™ platform to develop therapies targeting previously intractable intracellular disease targets, has officially raised a sum worth $30 million in Series A financing.

Led by DCVC Bio, the round saw further participation from the likes of Eli Lilly and Company, InVivium Capital, Walder Ventures, Gradiant Corporation, Mansueto Investments, and others. More on that would reveal how the company plans on using these newly-raised proceeds to further advance Grove Biopharma’s proprietary platform and drive its lead oncology programs towards clinic.

For better understanding, the company’s proprietary Bionic Biologics platform brings forth a novel therapeutic modality which integrates principles of biologic and synthetic design. By doing so, it enables the targeting of well-validated yet previously intractable disease drivers, thus unlocking new possibilities for therapeutic intervention.

The platform also combines advancements in precision polymer chemistry with the latest tools of medicinal chemistry, peptide chemistry, AI/ML driven computational chemistry and protein engineering. This it does to reach upon an integrated platform capable of designing fully synthetic, cell-penetrant, protein-scale molecules that effectively solve protein-scale problems.

“At Grove, we are focused on developing therapeutics for well-understood but historically intractable disease targets, with the goal of delivering better options for patients living with serious illnesses where few, if any, effective therapies exist,” said Geoffrey Duyk, M.D., Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO at Grove Biopharma. “We believe our Bionic Biologics platform represents a true paradigm shift for drug development, enabling us to rapidly develop molecules that can selectively inhibit or degrade even the most challenging intracellular drug targets. We are deeply grateful to our seed and Series A investors for their ongoing confidence.”

Talk about the given technology on a slightly deeper level, it presents a new approach to targeting protein-protein interactions (PPI), with the same distinguished by three key characteristics.

These characteristics include the bionic component, where hybrid synthetic biomolecules come bearing enhanced functionality beyond what is possible in nature.

Next up, we have its permeable nature, which leverages multivalent chameleonic architecture to help membrane permeability hit intracellular targets.

Another detail worth a mention is rooted in a facility to customize things. Thanks to its plug-and-play design, modular construction, and tunable properties, the platform can rapidly develop and implement molecules, either monofunctional or bifunctional, against any target.

Among other things, we ought to mention to how Grove Biopharma’s Bionic Biologics have already been demonstrated in proof-of-concept studies across several validated yet formidable intracellular targets. The company’s pipeline is initially focused on oncology and neurodegenerative diseases, where the advantage of cell-permeability facilitates therapeutic intervention in the stated diseases’ pathways.

As for Grove’s lead effort, it is understood to be an androgen receptor signaling program, geared towards the treatment of castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Data to date for this one has also been demonstrated in vivo proof-of-concept and the company is advancing towards an IND submission.

“Proteins are the molecular machines that drive all essential cellular function, and dysregulated intracellular protein-protein interactions are the cause of many human diseases,” said Nathan Gianneschi, Ph.D., Scientific Founder of Grove Biopharma and Professor at Northwestern University. “Existing drug modalities are either unable to penetrate cells or cannot effectively engage these large disease target domains. Bionic Biologics provide a new approach to this challenge, and I am excited to continue collaborating with the Grove team to advance this new modality to the clinic.”

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