Tune Therapeutics, a Seattle-based biotech startup, has secured $175 million in a Series B funding round to support its clinical research in epigenetic editing. The company, which also has labs in Durham, N.C., is pioneering a novel approach to control gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence. The startup recently initiated its first clinical trials in New Zealand and Hong Kong, testing an epigenetic treatment for chronic Hepatitis B, a condition that affects over 250 million people worldwide and is the primary cause of liver cancer.
The new funding will be used to support these ongoing studies. Akira Matsuno, Tune’s co-founder and chief financial officer, explained, “This is a very novel field. You can think of this as kind of the evolution of genetic medicines.”
Many health conditions are caused by the misregulation of a gene’s function, resulting in the production of too much or too little of a protein, rather than the presence or absence of a genetic mutation.
Tune Therapeutics utilizes targeted genetics tools to direct an effector to the misbehaving gene, temporarily altering its behavior. The company also employs lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology, commonly used in COVID-19 vaccines, to deliver the treatment. Founded in 2020, Tune has 80 employees, with its workforce evenly distributed between its Seattle and Durham labs.
Tune Therapeutics secures significant funding
The company’s technology is based on research from Duke University, developed by co-founder Charles Gersbach. Fyodor Urnov, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former associate director at Seattle’s Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences, is Tune’s third co-founder and serves on its scientific advisory board.
Tune has developed a genetic tuning platform called TEMPO, which has potential applications in various health conditions. The company will be enrolling patients in its Hepatitis B clinical trials and administering treatment through 2025. Given the novelty of the technology, the timeline for observing results is still uncertain, and the company has not yet determined when it will begin testing its therapy in the U.S.
In previous research, Tune demonstrated that its technology could repress a specific gene in non-human primates, leading to a sustained reduction in LDL cholesterol levels that has lasted nearly two years after a single treatment.
The company is also investigating the application of its therapy to other liver conditions and the potential to reprogram a cell’s identity to restore unhealthy cells to a healthy state through epigenetic editing. The Series B round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Yosemite, Regeneron Ventures, and Hevolution Foundation. With this latest funding, Tune has raised over $200 million from investors.
Matsuno expressed his excitement about launching the clinical trials, stating, “But I’m more excited for the patients and the field in general. We hope it’s a step forward.”
Tune Therapeutics’ substantial funding round is one of the largest for health-related startups in the Pacific Northwest, alongside other notable raises by companies such as Kestra Medical Technologies ($196 million), Borealis Biosciences ($180 million), and Outpace Bio ($144 million).
