Immuto Scientific unveils collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo to identify cancer‑specific cell‑surface targets
MADISON, Wis. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#biotech–Immuto Scientific announced today the closing of an oversubscribed $8 million Seed 2 financing round and a drug discovery collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo, a global pharmaceutical company. Immuto Scientific is applying its AI-enabled structural surfaceomics platform to a new approach in drug discovery. Backed by the financing, the company will advance its internal oncology pipeline toward IND-enabling studies and extend the platform into additional areas such as immunology and inflammation.
“The greatest challenge in drug discovery today is not the lack of modalities; it’s the shortage of truly novel, disease‑specific targets,” said Faraz A. Choudhury, Ph.D., co‑founder and CEO of Immuto Scientific. “The vast majority of drug targets overlap with healthy tissues, which drives toxicity and narrow therapeutic windows. Our data‑driven platform reveals a hidden dimension of the cell surfaceome that conventional omics approaches cannot see, opening new therapeutic opportunities across cancer and other diseases.”
For its first drug discovery collaboration, Immuto will work with Daiichi Sankyo Research Institute Boston to discover new targets in solid tumors using its proprietary structural surfaceomics platform and to develop antibodies against these targets. Under the terms of the agreement, Daiichi Sankyo holds an option to license resulting assets. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Our collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo underscores how exploring the structural conformations of cell‑surface proteins represents an untapped frontier in drug discovery,” said Dan Benjamin, Chief Technology Officer of Immuto Scientific. “By targeting cancer‑specific surface structures, we have the opportunity to develop first‑in‑class therapies with truly differentiated precision and selectivity.”
Building on its success collaborating with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners in high‑resolution structural proteomics, Immuto applies its target discovery platform and structural epitope‑mapping engine to identify disease‑specific surface protein conformations that are invisible to other omics approaches, unlocking highly selective, novel therapeutic targets. The platform integrates high‑resolution structural proteomics, live‑cell protein structural assessment, and advanced AI‑enabled analytics to interrogate conformational differences across thousands of proteins simultaneously—even in heterogeneous, patient‑derived samples.
By identifying epitopes specific to disease states, the platform enables discovery of first‑in‑class targets ideally suited to highly disease‑specific modalities, providing opportunities for improved therapeutic indices and translational success. Immuto has demonstrated target identification in multiple tumor types and is advancing its lead program through in vivo studies.
“Immuto Scientific’s approach is highly differentiated, creating and leveraging data that no other group in the world has,” said Spencer Maughan, Founder and Managing Partner, DYDX. “The company is driving a step‑change in predictive protein structure based on its data and AI engine. This opens a new world of targets for much‑needed therapies with exceptional specificity. We are excited to be partnering with Immuto and believe the company will be a key part of the new era of data‑driven drug discovery.”
The financing was led by DYDX, a venture fund investing in the Data SuperCycle, with participation from WARF Ventures, Gravity Fund, Great Oaks Venture Capital, among others.
About Immuto Scientific
Immuto Scientific is redefining the landscape of target discovery by revealing the structural fingerprints of disease. Through its therapeutic discovery arm, Immuto is discovering and developing first‑in‑class therapeutics that target structural changes in cell‑surface proteins unique to disease. Powered by its AI‑enabled target discovery and epitope‑identification platforms, Immuto discovers novel, targetable surface protein conformations (SPCs) from patient‑derived samples, driving the development of safer, more precise therapies. With its disease‑agnostic platform, Immuto is building a differentiated pipeline with an initial focus on oncology. For more information, visit www.immutotherapeutics.com.
Contacts
Company: Hetal Marble, Chief Business Officer, Immuto Scientific, [email protected]
Media: Jessica Yingling, Ph.D., Little Dog Communications Inc., [email protected]
