14 May 2021 - - US-based biotechnology company Flare Therapeutics launched with a series A financing of USD 82m, the company said.

The series A was led by Third Rock Ventures with significant support by Boxer Capital, Nextech Invest, Casdin Capital, Invus Financial Advisors and Eventide Asset Management.

Flare is targeting transcription factors through 'switch sites' newly identified druggable regions that control predictable and profound changes in gene expression as a fundamentally new way to discover novel small molecule medicines to treat the multitude of diseases driven by transcription factor dysregulation.

Flare's switch-site based drug discovery approach has resulted in an emerging pipeline of drug programs targeting transcription factor dysregulation and mutations that are known to be pivotal drivers of cancer.

The series A will support Flare's further advancement of its lead program in precision oncology toward the clinic.

In addition, the company will continue to build its unique engine and proprietary assays to discover small molecules that target transcription factors at switch sites.

Flare's new drug discovery paradigm for targeting transcription factors is based on a broader understanding of the cooperative communication and allosteric interaction among the elements of the transcriptional molecular complex, which is distinct from the historically narrow focus on individual transcription factor domains in isolation.

Seminal work by Flare's scientific co-founders recently elucidated molecular mechanisms for targeting transcription factors, showing the way for Flare's drug discovery team to recognize the broad potential to generalize these principles to the 'switch site' as a focal point for drugging transcription factors in a new way.

The Flare team brings together experienced biotechnology leaders with decades of industry expertise and deep scientific, drug discovery and development skills.

Company leaders include Abbie Celniker, PhD, interim chief executive officer; James Audia, PhD, distinguished scientist; Lorence Kim, MD, interim chief operating officer; Jeanette Kohlbrenner, interim chief people officer; and Robert Sims, PhD, chief scientific officer.

Scientific co-founders and advisors of Flare include world-renowned experts with decades of experience understanding the biology and structure of transcription factors.

Transcription factors are DNA-binding proteins that can activate or repress DNA transcription and, therefore, control gene expression.

There are up to 1600 TFs in the human genome and approximately 10% of genes encode TFs, making TFs one of the largest families of regulatory proteins.

Transcription factors generally perform their functions while in multi-protein complexes with interconnected biochemical activity.

TF mutations are drivers of many diseases, including one-third of oncogenes in cancer and one-fifth of haploinsufficiency genetic diseases.2, 3 Despite their central role in diseases, fewer than 1% of TFs have been successfully targeted for therapeutics because conventional rules for drug design do not apply to transcription factors.

Flare Therapeutics is a biotechnology company opening up a new therapeutic space with a novel approach to decipher the biology of transcription factors to develop small molecule medicines.

Based on insights from the seminal work of its scientific founders, Flare's team has uncovered 'switch sites,' druggable regions that are key targets for transcription factor regulation to address mutations that cause disease.