Prim­ing ther­a­py biotech emerges from stealth with seed fund­ing — and on a hunt for part­ners

At Eigen Ther­a­peu­tics, the goal is to make can­cer treat­ment more ef­fec­tive. But not by mak­ing tar­get­ed drugs.

With $7 mil­lion in seed fund­ing an­nounced to­day, Eigen is a step clos­er to de­vel­op­ing what are known as “prim­ing ther­a­pies” that make can­cer cells more vis­i­ble to tu­mor-killing med­i­cines, as well as build­ing out a plat­form to de­sign these ther­a­pies and dis­cov­er po­ten­tial new drug class­es.

It’s a two-step ap­proach to treat­ing can­cer: The first step is the prim­ing ther­a­py, shin­ing a fig­u­ra­tive spot­light on can­cer cells to make them more rec­og­niz­able to tar­get­ed ther­a­pies. Then, such treat­ments can more eas­i­ly find and at­tack the tu­mors and elim­i­nate the can­cer with­out do­ing as much dam­age to healthy cells.

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