BMS-Backed Transition Bio Scores $50M to Mine Biomolecular Condensates for Therapeutic Use

Transition Bio officially debuted Thursday morning with $50 million in Series A financing led by Northpond Ventures with participation from Taiho Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb and Magnetic Ventures. The company plans to utilize its microfluidics-driven drug discovery platform and AI tools to map and modulate biomolecular condensates.

Biomolecular condensates are organelles that lack surrounding membranes but have the ability to concentrate proteins and genetic material. They have been studied in the past decade as contributors to disease. For example, cellular stress, aging-related loss of homeostasis and a decline in protein quality control can lead to the formation of disease-causing condensates which can cause protein misfolding and aggregation, such as those seen in diseases of aging.

“There are companies that focus on targeting DNA, companies that focus on targeting RNA and companies focused on targeting protein, usually membrane-bound proteins. There’s no technology that is specifically tailored to address something that’s a multifactorial problem like condensates which contain protein and RNA,” Greg Miller, CEO of Transition Bio said in an interview with BioSpace.

At least not until Transition Bio popped up in the industry in 2020. The company has a four-component platform called Condensomics which provides a technological method to understand the properties of condensates.

First, a PhaseScan is completed using its one-of-a-kind screening platform that generates extensive datasets of the mechanisms of condensate modulation. CelPhase comes next, which combines imaging and analytical techniques to demonstrate the effects of condensate modulators in cell lines and understand how molecules impact condensate formation.

The final two components bring the information full circle in a way that is important for drug development. In the PhaseSeq phase, the way in which the condensates affect key cellular processes is evaluated to determine the best condensate targets and the most appropriate interventions. Finally, in DeePhase, the unique datasets generated are incorporated with machine learning for target prediction and in-silico drug discovery.

“Unlike other areas of science where there are meaningful datasets that you can mine, condensates just don’t have that. The big vision is to generate this proprietary dataset that allows us to be the leaders in both predicting the chemistry that can modify these condensates as well as the biological importance of the targets themselves,” Miller said.

With previous financing, Transition Bio established proof of principle of the platform, demonstrating that the company can effectively modify condensates and replicate their behavior as well as seeing early evidence of correlates between condensates and disease. Now, the company is focused on refining the targets where it plans to develop its pipeline.

“We want to really continue to apply our tools to both identify meaningful disease-modifying compounds and in parallel, strengthen the datasets to allow higher predictive capabilities,” Miller said. “Biomolecular condensates really are limitless in the therapeutic areas they can touch.”

Transition Bio plans to first advance condensate research and drug development in the oncology field. The company plans to build its own proprietary pipeline and hopes to expand to other therapeutic areas in the future.