Flag­ship start­up Em­press Ther­a­peu­tics launch­es to search for small mol­e­cule drug leads in mi­cro­bial DNA

Flag­ship’s lat­est start­up is bet­ting that a trea­sure trove of small mol­e­cule drugs is wait­ing to be dis­cov­ered right in­side our bod­ies — or rather, in­side the many mi­cro­bial denizens that call hu­mans home.

Em­press Ther­a­peu­tics emerged from stealth Wednes­day morn­ing with $50 mil­lion from Flag­ship Pi­o­neer­ing, the life sci­ence in­vest­ment firm be­hind Mod­er­na and dozens of small­er biotech com­pa­nies. Em­press, based in Cam­bridge, MA, was qui­et­ly found­ed in 2020 and has since grown to near­ly 30 em­ploy­ees.

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