SEngine Precision Medicine Secures $5.1M Series A Funding to Commercialize Its Drug Discovery Platform

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) has learned that SEngine Precision Medicine, headquartered in Seattle, recently announced the completion of a $5.1 million Series A financing round, led by Bangarang Group. The funds will be used to commercialize a platform that helps cancer patients identify appropriate medications and facilitates drug discovery.

Spun out of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 2015 and led by founder and CEO Dr. Carla Grandori, SEngine is an oncology company that accelerates cancer drug discovery through its CLIA-certified proprietary diagnostic platform, PARIS®. In May 2018, SEngine received a $755,000 grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. To date, the company has raised over $9 million.

SEngine’s PARIS® test involves culturing a patient’s tumor cells in the laboratory and then analyzing them to determine the safest and most effective medications. Oncologists can also select drugs for testing from SEngine’s library of more than 200 small-molecule compounds. Oncologists across the United States are currently using the PARIS® test to predict and validate personalized treatment options for their patients.

Sometimes the test can lead to unexpected results, such as when a patient’s thyroid cancer tumor responds to a drug developed for ovarian cancer. “Potential mutations are very common in every type of cancer, even across vastly different cancer types,” said Dr. Carla Grandori, CEO of SEngine Precision Medicine.

In the process of testing cancers from different patients, SEngine also collected data valuable for discovering new drugs. Grandori stated that this application could be more profitable than screening for suitable drugs in tumors. The startup recently formed a joint venture with Atomwise, headquartered in San Francisco, aimed at discovering new anticancer drugs.

Elliott Burkland, an investor in Bangarang Group, stated in a press release: “We continue to see tremendous potential for Dr. Grandori and her world-class team to fundamentally transform cancer treatment through their personalized diagnostic platform and novel drug discovery programs.”

SEngine’s advisors include Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies, and Nobel laureate Dr. Leland Hartwell. In August, SEngine hired Tom Neary, a former executive at the spaceflight industry company, as its Chief Financial Officer.

(Compiled by Tan Jiulin)