News - PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF POSSIBILITY

In its annual survey of new groundbreaking biotechnology companies, the prestigious journal, Nature Biotechnology, has recognized 28-7 as one of the top 10 academic spinouts of 2019.

Recognized for its pioneering approach to RNA modulators, 28-7 is nominated by Biospace as one of the most exciting newly founded biotechs.

Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm specialized in the life sciences, today announced that the firm led Twentyeight-Seven's Series A extension with a $15 million investment.  In addition to Sofinnova Partners, Osage University Partners participated in the Series A extension bringing the total Series A financing to $82.75 million.

Twentyeight-Seven (28-7) Therapeutics is the latest start-up to launch with the goal of developing drugs that tackle the tricky interface between RNA and proteins. And it’s got a whopping $65 million in series A financing to do it.

Tackling tumors head-on isn’t the only way to treat cancer. New cancer biotech 28-7 Therapeutics, a Harvard spinout, is researching an approach that targets cellular fragments that play key roles in cancer growth, and it now has $65 million in funding to advance its work.

The MPM Capital executive partner who helped found and initially ran Epizyme and Mitobridge has been working with a small team to help validate the decade-long effort at George Daley’s Harvard lab to explore a particular pathway that appears to be an important player in cancer progression.

Founded in 2016, the company’s core technology comes from four Harvard Medical School professors in biological chemistry, molecular pharmacology and RNA medicine: Richard Gregory, Ph.D.; Frank Slack, Ph.D.; Piotr Sliz, Ph.D.; and George Daley, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the faculty of medicine—who have collaborated for years on the role of noncoding RNAs in disease and identifying related protein targets.