Recently, Boston, Massachusetts,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute spin-offPrecede Biosciences stands out with a groundbreaking, comprehensive, blood-based approach that reveals the transcriptional biology defining diseases — a first in the diagnostics field. Precede’s whole-genome platform simultaneously explores the dynamic, feature-rich landscape of gene promoters, gene enhancers, and the DNA methylome in one milliliter (1mL) of plasma. Precede is actively collaborating with drug developers to accelerate precision medicine development by identifying biology associated with treatment response and resistance, as well as uncovering new targets linked to disease mechanisms. At the same time, Precede is developing blood-based clinical tests to facilitate the precise use of cancer drugs in clinical practice. To date, Precede’s platform is available as a Research Use Only (RUO) platform for drug developers and academic researchers. Since its inception, Precede has secured $57 million in funding from leading venture capital firms.Precede Biosciences was co-founded through 5AM Ventures' 4:59 initiative and received support from 5AM Ventures and Binney Street Capital, a subsidiary of Dana-Farber, during its seed round. The company’s Series A financing was co-led by 5AM Ventures and Lilly Asia Ventures, with participation from Illumina Ventures, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Osage University Partners (OUP), and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
Over the past decade, genomic liquid biopsy (LBx) technology has had a tremendous impact on cancer treatment. These technologies, focused on somatic mutations, have influenced treatment decisions for millions of patients and contributed to the success of numerous targeted oncology drug development programs. However, these technologies are limited to cancer and cannot fully guide treatment decisions based on transcriptional regulation disease targets (such as HER2 and ER in cancer), nor can they address new modalities (such as antibodiesConjugationNew disease targets of interest for antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). Existing technologies are further limited by their inability to assess the dynamic impact of treatments on targets and pathways of interest. Precede is unique among existing and emerging LBx platforms, offering directly interpretable genome-wide biology at the gene and pathway levels, and can be used to elucidate a patient’s biological state from 1 mL of plasma at any given time.
Rehan Verjee, CEO and Co-Founder of Precede Biosciences, stated:"Our platform is truly the first of its kind in the field, as it enables a comprehensive analysis of dynamic disease-site biology at both the genetic and pathway levels through a simple blood draw. Over the past decade, existing liquid biopsy technologies have impacted millions of cancer patients, yet Precede Biosciences' precision medicine application space even surpasses the most successful of these liquid biopsy technologies, creating significant opportunities for us to influence medical practice."The advancement of Precede's cutting-edge platform technology requires mastery of complex molecular biology and the development of sophisticated machine learning methods, a journey that began at the Cancer Research Institute and has spanned many years. Precede's platform has undergone extensive testing and has already generated over 7,000 whole-genome disease transcription profiles in cancer and many other diseases and conditions. The platform’s first set of scientific data has been accepted for oral presentation at the 2023 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, held in October, and will be presented by one of the company’s scientific founders. These data were also simultaneously published in a major medical journal.
Carl Barrett, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Precede Biosciences, stated:"I have worked with many emerging and established liquid biopsy companies, and I am excited about the potential of Precede's liquid biopsy platform to inform drug development in ways that other platforms have not been able to achieve so far. Precede’s approach enables informed and knowledgeable decisions in numerous situations where we lack critical understanding of disease biology."
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