Southern Research has created a venture studio and hired a founding director.
The venture studio was launched to spin out startups that will bring new therapeutic products to market, and it will compete for sources of non-dilutive and equity funding from public and private sources to bridge from early-stage research to clinical development.
It will be operated by Tayo Sanders II, who will work closely with investigators at Southern Research to advance current drug programs. In conjunction with its partners, Southern Research has more than 20 drug programs currently in preclinical development. These programs hold potential for patients in therapeutic areas such as cancer, infectious disease and neurological disease.
Sanders spent the last seven years working with investors and startups in the biotech and industrial technology space. Most recently, he led due diligence on more than 15 companies, totaling more than $130 million in deployed capital as a senior member of the investment team at the Boston-based VC firm, Anzu Partners.
Prior to this, Sanders led technical diligence on Anzu’s first investment, Axsun Technologies, which was acquired for an eight-times return in the first quarter of 2019. He earned a bachelor's degree in materials science from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and pursued a doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
In order to enter the venture studio, programs will undergo a rigorous selection process that assesses scientific strength, commercial potential and regulatory considerations. The first set of spinouts, Cohort I, was created in November with fundraising to begin in November 2023.
Cohort I includes four companies:
- Litus Therapeutics is advancing therapies that target a critical feature of many cancers: silenced tumor suppressor genes. Litus expects that these new therapies will be powerful tools in the fight against triple-negative breast cancer as well as other solid and liquid cancers.
- Silanus Therapeutics is developing new therapies to disrupt protein-protein interactions responsible for cancer immune evasion.
- Pratum Therapeutics is using drugs that target the tumor microenvironment to improve treatment for a variety of cancers. Pratum anticipates its new therapies will not only lead to better outcomes for patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment, but also expand the types of cancers that can be addressed.
- Divum Therapeutics is developing a new class of drugs to treat moderate to severe chronic pain without the side effects associated with traditional opioid analgesics. Studies by the Divum team indicate that potent pain relief can be achieved while reducing tolerance, withdrawal and addiction liability. Divum hopes this promising work could play a significant role in combating the opioid crisis.
Southern Research also recently partnered on a project to send bacteria to space on a mission to find new hope for people with cancer. When Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket launched in Virginia on Nov. 7, it was carrying 11 bacterial strains that will help the team study what the teams calls a promising approach to fight cancer.
