Backed by Hatteras Venture, Startup Ten63 Aims to Drug the Undruggable
By Alex Keown
May 5, 2023
With $15.9 million from a Series A financing round in hand, Durham-based startup Ten63 is focused on developing a pipeline of first-in-class small molecules aimed at currently undruggable cancer targets.
Proceeds from the Series A will be used to advance the company’s pipeline of small molecules, including its lead Myc inhibitor program. The company’s pipeline is supported by its proprietary computational drug discovery platform, dubbed BEYOND, which is designed to search more than 100 trillion synthetically feasible molecules, enabling the development of first- and best-in-class therapeutics, the company noted in its announcement.
A Duke and TTIC spin-out headquartered in Research Triangle Park, Ten63’s BEYOND platform enables the company to “design potent chemistry against the hardest targets by searching previously unexplored, drug-like, synthetically accessible chemical space.” BEYOND combines physics and artificial intelligence in hyper-efficient search algorithms. This enables the company to pursue validated biological targets that exceed the reach of conventional therapeutic research, Ten63 said.
The company’s lead target is c-Myc, a regulator of genetic expression in the cell. More than half of all cancers are driven by c-Myc deregulation, the company said. Its role in cancer has been noted in more than 20,000 publications over the past 40 years. Despite this, c-Myc remains an undruggable target. Ten63 believes its computational platform BEYOND has the potential to crack Myc, as well as other undruggable oncogenes, transforming the treatment landscape for patients.
“Using BEYOND, we have found a new pocket and path forward in drugging c-Myc. Our novel compound is 10x more potent than the best literature compounds,” Ten63 announced on its website.
Ten63 isn’t the only company taking aim at c-Myc. Aptose Biosciences, Omega Therapeutics, Allogene Therapeutics and others have developed assets aimed at this target.
The impetus behind Ten63 began with the cancer diagnosis of Gilda Szacher Frenkel, the mother of company co-founder and chief executive officer Marcel Frenkel. Frenkel’s cancer was driven by mutations to proteins that regulate cellular processes. Although their roles were well known, those proteins were undruggable by current methods, Marcel Frenkel said.
“Ten63 has set out with a vengeance to change this paradigm through the application of next-generation computational drug discovery methods,” Frenkel said in a statement.
Mark Hallen, a company cofounder and chief technology officer of Ten63, said the BEYOND platform builds on molecular voxel theory (MVT).
“MVT allows BEYOND to explore a chemical space of over 100 trillion compounds, with mathematical guarantees to discover the best small molecule solutions given the company’s state-of-the-art hybrid AI/physics-based models. BEYOND also enables Ten63 to find novel pockets and binding sites, as well as a large diversity of chemical matter,” Hallen said in a statement.
In addition to Frenkel and Hallen, Ten63’s leadership team includes a team of seasoned pharma industry veterans and computational experts. Among them are co-founder Nancy Miller-Rich, who was previously global head of BD and Strategy at Merck; and Melissa Epstein, head of IP Strategy. Epstein was previously a Senior Vice President at Novartis. Stephen Thompson, formerly a section head at GSK and research fellow at Vertex, serves as Head of Chemistry. Charles Holst, Ten63’s Vice President and Head of Biology, was previously a senior director at Ribometrix and senior principal scientist at Pfizer.
The Series A was led by Hatteras Venture Partners. Other participants include Morpheus Ventures, SOSV, Draper Associates, Alexandria Venture Investments, the Sigma Group and other unnamed investors.
Clay Thorp, co-founder and general partner at Hatteras Venture Partners said Ten63 and its team have taken AI and machine learning driven drug discovery to the next level. The Ten63 approach will opens the doors to an “expanded universe of compounds and binding pockets,” said Thorp, who is chairman of the Ten63 Board of Directors.
Frenkel expressed his gratitude to the venture firms backing the company and its mission to crack undruggable targets.
“At Ten63, we are dedicated to developing groundbreaking therapeutics that benefit patients, and we are pleased to strengthen our syndicate with the experience and expertise to help us get there. Our investors have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to help companies grow to have a positive impact on patients’ lives. We look forward to building on that tradition,” Frenkel said.
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Alex Keown is a freelance journalist who writes about a variety of subjects including the pharma, biotech, and life science industries. Prior to freelancing, Alex has served as a staff writer and editor for several publications.
