The National Cancer Institute is awarding a $2.4 million Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research Award to New Haven-based biotech Modifi Biosciences, which is focused on finding cancer treatments.
The company will use the money toward advancing its platform into the clinic, according to Dr. Ranjit Bindra, company co-founder and scientific director of the Yale Brain Tumor Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital.
“The SBIR funding mechanism is essential for the early stages of biotech start-ups, it’s a critical source of non-dilutive capital,” Bindra said.
Modifi Bio has offices and laboratories at the Elm City Bioscience Center.
The company is working to develop drugs that target DNA repair defects associated with tumors. Some cancer cells lack expression of a key DNA repair protein called MGMT, or methylguanine methyl transferase, according to the company. Modifi Bio aims to develop drugs that target these cancer cells.
Seth Herzon, company co-founder and Yale professor, said the grant “serves as an independent peer review of our transformative approach to exploit DNA repair defects via DNA modification, which has the potential to one day change the oncology treatment paradigm, particularly for patients with brain cancer.”
According to Herzon, the company is able to quickly translate its research “from bench to bedside” because the structures of its small molecules are similar to drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in humans.
“Our molecules are critically different because they are able to overcome key resistance mechanisms in cancers,” Herzon said. “With the help of the SBIR grant, Modifi Bio is one step closer to clinical trials.”
Earlier this year, the company completed a $6.4 million seed round, and it opened its space at Elm City Bioscience Center in September.
Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.
