Tune Therapeutics, a Durham biotechnology startup co-founded by a Duke professor, announced the completion of its Series B fundraising round on Jan. 12, in which it raised $175 million to support clinical trials for its epigenome editor.
The company will use the funding to advance clinical trials for Tune-401, the epigenetic silencing drug for treating chronic Hepatitis B — a viral infection that damages the liver and affects millions globally. The investment will also support the development of various other therapies, including additional gene, cell and regenerative therapy programs.
“The goal is to epigenetically repress the virus to prevent it from being able to replicate and make the viral proteins that it would normally produce,” said Charles Gersbach, John W. Strohbehn distinguished professor of biomedical engineering and cofounder of Tune Therapeutics.
In March 2020, Tune Therapeutics emerged from the Gersbach Lab in the Pratt School of Engineering, a research team founded by Gersbach in 2009 to develop new technologies that modify genome sequences.
“I had always been excited about the idea of using [technologies] for modulating epigenetics as a way to recapitulate what biology normally does — as we make all of our different cell types, as we respond to our environment, as we regenerate our tissues, [as we] heal our wounds or as we age,” Gersbach said, reflecting on the groundbreaking potential of CRISPR — a gene-editing tool for selectively modifying DNA.
Tune Therapeutics’ epigenetic editor modifies gene expression by influencing how DNA sequences are read and interpreted rather than altering the underlying genetic code. Chief Scientific Officer Derek Jantz, who completed his postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Duke, explained that by “turn[ing] some [genes] on and off … [it] allows us to … treat diseases in which genes are turned on when they shouldn’t be or they’re turned off when they shouldn't be,” ultimately “reoptimiz[ing] patterns of gene expression.”
Jantz shared that Tune Therapeutics’ name was inspired by its approach to “gene tuning,” where genes are not altered or edited but instead fine-tuned “up or down a little bit” to affect disease progression.
Tune Therapeutics has branded its novel epigenetic silencing approach as offering a “path to functional care” as a standalone treatment for chronic Hepatitis B.
The technology has broad applications “across a pretty broad swath of human disease,” including aging, chronic Hepatitis B and other conditions influenced by epigenetic factors, according to Gersbach and Jantz.
According to Jantz, the clinical trials for the drug started in New Zealand due to the availability of patients with chronic Hepatitis B and the expertise of physicians in clinical trial research. The next phase will be conducted in Hong Kong for similar reasons. Currently, the company is in its first phase of clinical trials.
Gersbach emphasized that once the optimal dosage is determined in the initial phase, the trial will progress to its second phase, after which Tune-401 will be approved and made available to patients.
“We want to use the Hepatitis B drug as an opportunity to build into other areas of medicine as well,” Gersbach said. “Showing safety and efficacy with this first clinical trial would allow us to develop additional drugs that take advantage of this epigenome editing platform to do things that other types of therapeutic modalities aren't able to do.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Srilakshmi Venkatesan is a Trinity first-year and a staff reporter for the news department.