Our Investment In Protein Therapeutics with an Expanded Amino Acid Alphabet

- Removing the barriers historically associated with protein therapeutics

By Brent MacDonald – Partner at Rising Tide

The current biologics market suffers from high production costs, shortfalls, and deficient performance in product half-life. Therapeutic proteins are often made in expensive systems because they have chemical bonds that do not form in microbes.

GRO Biosciences, also known as "GRObio,", a spinout from the George Church Lab at Harvard Medical School, is leveraging breakthrough technologies from computational protein design and synthetic biology to develop best-in-class protein therapeutics with enhanced properties. The Company believes it found a way to recode the genomes of bacterial strains in a way that could allow them to produce commercially scalable proteins that are more potent and longer lasting than traditional drugs. These proteins, which are designed to have stronger chemical bonds (less likely to break down in a patient’s blood) can provide important therapies for diseases such as diabetes, cancer, infectious diseases, hemophilia, and anemia. Professor Church has professed that GRObio technology could lead to the creation of a new universe of designer proteins with enhanced therapeutic properties at a commercial scale. Each member of the team is equipped with PhD-level research in synthetic biology. The global protein therapeutics market size was valued at $341.4 billion in 2024 and the worldwide Protein therapeutics market size is expected to reach $605.3 billion by 2033. (Allied Market Research).

At their facilities in Boston, MA, GRObio is creating best-in-class protein therapeutics with improved properties by utilizing cutting-edge technologies from synthetic biology and computational protein design. The Company has created several bacterial strains with altered genomes that can add non-standard amino acids to proteins to boost their potency, stability, and targeted delivery. Using its technological platform, GRObio is creating better protein therapies for autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and growth disorders.

GROBio closed a $60 million Series B round in 2024 co-led by strategics. Proceeds from the financing will be used to support key platform development and manufacturing activities, pre-clinical validation studies, and IND (Investigational New Drug) enabling studies. See the funding press release here.

Why We Are Excited:

GRO Biosciences is utilizing cutting-edge research to broaden the range of amino acids and fulfill the potential of protein therapies. To better the lives of patients, the company is revolutionizing treatments in several fields, such as metabolic and autoimmune diseases. Using its platform, GRObio is advancing joint and cooperative projects in addition to its pipeline of protein therapeutics with distinct non-standard amino acid (NSAA) chemistries. The NSAA medicines produced by the company have hitherto unachievable benefits, such as precise immune system regulation and unheard-of duration of action. Preclinical data for two ProGly programs for unconventional amino acid therapies were recently presented by the Company. The information points to potential novel approaches for both the elimination of anti-drug antibodies against immunogenic therapies and the reversal of autoimmune disease without immunosuppression. We wholeheartedly endorse GRObio's objective to use its GRO platform to harness the unparalleled potential of NSAAs to surmount long-standing obstacles in protein therapeutics and improve patient outcomes.

Disclaimer: Rising Tide Fund Managers, LLC and its affiliates (“Rising Tide” or “We”) is a United States venture capital firm investing primarily in the information technology and healthcare/life sciences markets. Over the last 35 years, we have partnered with family funds, high-impact investors, and strategic partners to help launch and expand startups in a variety of industries across three continents. We are dedicated to cooperating with our entrepreneurs at all stages: from financing to leveraging our international networks to facilitating exits by design. The portfolio companies described herein do not represent all the portfolio companies purchased, sold, or recommended for portfolios advised by Rising Tide. The reader should not assume that an investment in the portfolio companies identified were or will be profitable. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should be aware that a loss of investment is possible. For more information, visit www.rtf.vc