CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & CAMBRIDGE, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Transition Bio, Inc. (“Transition Bio” or the “Company”) was recently formed, funded, and launched with the focused objective to build the best and first-in-class technological capabilities required to evaluate and advance the novel area of cell biology known as condensates.
The initial closing of the Company’s Series Seed financing occurred at the end of September and was led by Lifeforce Capital.
Transition Bio brings together the unique fundamental knowledge and experience of Professor David Weitz of Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, and Professor Tuomas Knowles of the University of Cambridge’s Departments of Chemistry and Physics.
“After nearly 15 years of supporting each other’s work from an academic point of view, it is extremely exciting to combine the distinctive capabilities of our respective labs,” commented Professor Weitz. “It is our strong belief that this area of liquid-liquid phase separation offers an amazing opportunity in human health care advancement.”
Professor Knowles added, “David and I have long discussed how we could merge our knowledge and technologies to create something substantial that could genuinely change the world.” Knowles continued, “The combination of unique physical science methods with microfluidics and “big data” allows for disruptive advances in the world of drug discovery and diagnostics.”
Professors Weitz and Knowles branded the analysis of condensates cell biology based on the Company’s proprietary technology as Condensomics™. Transition Bio aims to make the Company the world leader in the field. When fully built, Transition Bio’s condensomics approach will replace the industry’s current reliance on inadequate conventional technologies to study biomolecular condensates.
Leading the Company’s research efforts is Assaf Rotem, Ph.D., who joined as Head of Research and Development based in Cambridge, MA. Assaf was most recently Director and Group Leader of Platform Technology at Repertoire Immune Medicine and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biomicrofluidics at Harvard University under the direction of Professor Weitz. Assaf will lead a team of scientists based in Cambridge, MA, the Company’s headquarters, and Cambridge, UK, together with William Arter, Ph.D., and Georg Krainer, Ph.D., members of the Knowles Lab who are responsible for the Company’s UK-based scientific operations.
Transition Bio further announced that its Board of Directors will include Professor Weitz, Professor Knowles, Dr. Samuel Cohen (UK), David Zimble, Esq. (Israel), and Executive Chairman, Kelly Martin (U.S.). Owen Hughes (U.S.) will serve as an advisor to the Company.
About Transition Bio, Inc.
Transition Bio, Inc. was established with the vision of being the world leader in the discovery, analysis, and modulation of biological condensates, propelled by a differentiated technological capability that generates expansive drug development opportunities in a hypothesis-free manner. www.transitionbio.com
