The newest, $86M Third Rock startup chases the tiny biological machines inside of you
It took 23 years from the isolation of the gene for cystic fibrosis to the approval of the first drug to target it, and another 7 for a drug that could treat the vast majority of CF patients. Third Rock Venture’s latest startup thinks they can build similar drugs a whole lot faster.
MOMA Therapeutics has raised $86 million to investigate and drug a class of enzymes known as molecular machines. These proteins include everything from enzymes involved in DNA repair to the transport proteins that go awry in cystic fibrosis — over 400 different types, by MOMA’s count. And yet, MOMA contends, they have been overlooked to date, with researchers both failing to understand them as a cohesive group and failing to employ systematic ways of finding and drugging them.
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