DURHAM — Tavros Therapeutics is collaborating with clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Zentalis Pharmaceuticals to discover “a new frontier” in oncology therapy.
Under the arrangement, the Durham-based emerging biotech company – founded by Duke grad Eoin McDonnell – will apply its genomic discovery platform to develop next generation target small molecule drug candidates, initially to expand Zentalis’ oncology pipeline.
Zentalis, which has offices in New York and San Diego, is developing a broad pipeline of oncology candidates. Its lead program, ZN-c5, is an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for estrogen-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
“We are pleased to be collaborating with Zentalis, as this aligns with Tavros’ goal to improve cancer therapy by uncovering unique and druggable vulnerabilities within tumors,” said Tavros CEO McDonnell, who started the company with Duke University professor Kris Wood and Greg Mossinghoff,
“The Tavros functional genomic discovery platform employs proven technologies and proprietary know-how to significantly increase clinical success, as well as to improve the tolerability and toxicity profile of a new drug.”
Added Zentalis CEO Anthony Sun: “Leveraging the unique insights provided by Tavros’ technologies coupled with Zentalis’ strong medicinal chemistry expertise, we believe this relationship could yield multiple novel drug candidates and combinations that may have the potential to address unmet needs for cancer patients.”
In March, Tavros raised roughly $1 million in equity.
At the time, McDonnell said he had received funding from a local investor “with a passion for emerging innovative life science investments.
McDonnell is a former senior scientist with Element Genomics, a Duke-spinout company focused on using CRISPR/Cas9-based tools to discover novel regulatory elements in the genome. It was acquired by UCB Pharma in 2018.
Durham biotech startup founded by Duke grad raises nearly $1M in equity
