Booster Therapeutics is ready to open up a new arm of the proteasome after raising $15 million in seed funding to advance small molecules it says can degrade multiple types of harmful proteins. Rather than tagging single disease proteins with a ubiquitin marker for degrading via 26S proteasomes, these compounds directly activate 20S proteasomes that naturally recognize disordered proteins without the need for ubiquitin tagging.

Integrated Biosciences Inc. has closed a $17.2 million seed financing to support its work combining synthetic biology and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven small-molecule drug discovery to produce next-generation therapeutics targeting age-related diseases.

Diakonos Oncology Corp. has developed a process to manufacture dendritic cell vaccines that the company believes are substantially more potent than its predecessors.

In its fifth year of transcription factor discovery, Talus Bioscience Inc. just raised $11.2 million in new venture funding. Seattle-based Talus will use the money to further develop its MARMOT (Multiplexed Assays for the Rational Modulation Of Transcription Factors) platform.

European biopharmas saw a huge surge in new funding in the second quarter of 2024, raising a collective $4.1 billion, compared to $1.9 billion in the same period of 2023. With the IPO market in Europe still virtually non-existent, $1.45 billion of this was venture capital, while $2.64 billion was raised in follow-on funding. The majority of VC funding was raised by companies in five countries, with $799.6 million raised in the U.K., $272.5 million in Switzerland, $201.8 million raised in Germany, $59 million in France and $25.7 million in Sweden.

Kalm Therapeutics Inc. disclosed a $700,000 oversubscribed closing of its seed round, which will be used to complete regulatory activities outlined in Kalm’s pre-IND meeting with the U.S. FDA, fund personnel and transfer the company’s patch production to a manufacturer.

Kano Therapeutics Inc. announced it has secured $5 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to date to $7.1 million. The company plans to use the funding to begin internal pipeline development of ex vivo genetic medicines based on kilobase gene insertion, expand its existing therapeutic collaborations to initiate externally driven preclinical programs, and scale its production capacity.

Release Therapeutics SA has announced that it has secured CHF3.3 million (US$3.87 million) in seed funding. The proceeds will be used to finance primate studies of the company’s cell macroencapsulation technology for use in metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD).

Montara Therapeutics Inc. has received $8 million seed financing from several investors to further its development of its ’binary pharmacology’ for diseases of the brain.

Alkira Bio, a new spinout from Australia’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health has emerged from stealth mode thanks to seed funding from Curie.bio. Although the amount of funding is not disclosed, Curie.bio typically invests $5 million to $10 million in a founder company and then co-pilots the drug discovery program, deploying drug development experts to its portfolio companies to help navigate decision making as part of the deal, Florey researcher turned Alkira Bio CEO Daniel Scott told BioWorld.