Key points from article :
General Proximity, a biotech startup based in San Francisco and founded in 2019, is leveraging biological proximity to develop medicines targeting ‘undruggable’ proteins associated with conditions like cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiometabolic diseases, and longevity. Using their OmniTAC platform, the company focuses on controlling effector proteins, which influence the activity of other proteins. This approach enables precise manipulation of disease-driving proteins, including their activity, degradation, refolding, and localization. By harnessing the collective network of these proteins, referred to as the "effectome," General Proximity aims to unlock new therapeutic opportunities.
The company has secured $16 million in funding, including an $8 million seed round led by Felicis and supported by Y Combinator, Healthspan Capital, and Lifespan Vision Ventures, alongside prominent individuals like Google AI chief Jeff Dean. Non-dilutive grants, such as a $3 million ARPA-H award for developing proximity therapeutics for women’s cancers, further bolster their efforts. Additionally, they have received five Golden Ticket awards from major pharmaceutical companies, offering resources and mentorship, and are part of Johnson & Johnson’s JLabs biotech incubator.
General Proximity’s team features top scientists from institutions like Scripps, Harvard, and Oxford, and industry veterans from Novartis, Merck, and Genentech. According to Cognetta, the precise control of biological proximity is key to modulating disease targets previously considered beyond reach, providing a new frontier in drug discovery.
With their initial drug candidates already in development, General Proximity’s innovative approach has attracted praise from investors like Aydin Senkut of Felicis, who sees the technology as a major step toward curing diseases and extending human healthspan. The company’s work underscores the potential of proximity medicines to revolutionize small-molecule drug discovery and reduce the global disease burden.
