Revolutionizing human medicine with molecular glues

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Magnet Biomedicine’s modular TrueGlue™ technology enables the systematic discovery of molecular glues towards the treatment of human disease.

Our technology builds upon the discoveries of our Scientific Founders, who provided the seminal observations on molecular glues and have explored them for over 30 years.

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THE SCIENCE

TrueGlues are compounds that induce cooperative interactions between multiple proteins

Targeted protein degradation has revealed the potential of molecular glues to treat human disease. Historically, TrueGlues have been found by chance; Magnet Biomedicine is changing that. The Magnet team is leveraging human genetics and proteomic data to select protein pairs for the development of monovalent molecular glues, altering the function of targets by degradation, stabilization, or inhibition. Magnet will pioneer the discovery of novel molecular glue medicines for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and immune disorders. Rationally designed molecular glues will restrict drug effects to disease-relevant tissues, induce biological synergy, and target undruggable proteins.

OUR TECHNOLOGY

Building upon recent advances in proteomics, screening, and bioinformatics, we believe the time is now to execute on this long-standing goal of rational molecular glue discovery

Our TrueGlue discovery platform combines state-of-the-art screening technologies utilizing diverse chemical libraries and human-biology-driven target selection. Our process integrates diverse streams of in-house and external data to discover and exploit novel molecular glue mechanisms of action.  Magnet’s TrueGlue technology can be applied in an indication-agnostic manner to discover molecular glues with a wide range of target modulation, drug-like properties, and selectivity.  

OUR PEOPLE

Brian Safina
Brian Safina, Ph.D.
President & Chief Scientific Officer
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Brian Safina, Ph.D.
Brian Safina, Ph.D.
President & Chief Scientific Officer
Brian Safina, Ph.D. is President and Chief Scientific Officer, at Magnet Biomedicine. Brian has over 20 years of drug discovery experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.  Prior to joining Magnet, Brian served as Senior Vice President, Discovery Research at Bolt Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immuno-oncology therapeutics.  Prior to joining Bolt, Brian served in roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, in Discovery Chemistry. Over the course of his career, he has contributed to the discovery and development of multiple clinical candidates across a range of modalities and disease areas. He has published more than 34 papers and is co-inventor on more than 50 granted patents and patent applications. Brian received his B.S. in Chemistry from Loyola Marymount University, and holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.
Bret Williams
Bret Williams, Ph.D.
Vice President of Biology
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Bret Williams, Ph.D.
Bret Williams, Ph.D.
Vice President of Biology
Bret Williams, Ph.D. is Vice President of Biology at Magnet Biomedicine. Bret has more than 12 years of drug discovery experience, working in both pharmaceutical and biotech settings. Prior to joining Magnet, Bret was a Senior Director at Relay Therapeutics, leading target selection and lead generation activities for both oncology and genetic disease projects. During his tenure at Relay, Bret lead or co-lead several programs, including Relay’s first clinical candidate, the SHP2 inhibitor RLY-1971. Prior to Relay, Bret served in roles of increasing responsibility within the Oncology Therapeutic Area at Sanofi. Bret received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Cellular and Molecular Biology and completed postdoctoral work as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bret has published more than 12 peer-reviewed articles, including manuscripts in Science and Cell during his career.
Matthew Hayward
Matthew Hayward, Ph.D.
Vice President of Drug Discovery
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Matthew Hayward, Ph.D.
Matthew Hayward, Ph.D.
Vice President of Drug Discovery
Matthew Hayward, Ph.D. is Vice President of Drug Discovery at Magnet Biomedicine. Matt has over 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Magnet, Matt spent 26 years as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer Inc. During his time there, he contributed to the discovery of 8 clinical candidates in the fields of inflammation, neuroscience, immunology, and oncology, penned 30 peer reviewed publications, and was an inventor on 26 patents. At Pfizer, Matt led the successful Scripps Research collaboration with Professor Benjamin Cravatt and his lab for over a decade, helping to advance the Cravatt lab’s industry leading chemoproteomics platform. Matt is currently the CFO for the Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry Foundation, a not-for-profit group established for the arrangement and sponsorship of international conferences, symposia, and educational programs dedicated to the advancement of bioorganic, synthetic, and medicinal chemistry. The foundation runs the popular biennial MBCF conference in Steamboat, Colorado. Matt received his B.A. from Connecticut College, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Yale University, and was also an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.
Jennifer Franklin
Jennifer Franklin
Vice President of Administration & Operations
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Jennifer Franklin
Jennifer Franklin
Vice President of Administration & Operations
Jennifer Franklin is Vice President of Administration and Operations at Magnet Biomedicine. Jennifer has 12 years of experience with Fidelity Investments Tax-Exempt Services and PwC Healthcare Advisory as well as 10 years of biotech experience with Editas Medicine and Cedilla Therapeutics with the opportunity to join both companies at a pre-Series A stage. Prior to joining Magnet, Jennifer served as Chief of Staff at Cedilla Therapeutics. Jennifer holds a BS in Business Administration and Economics from Framingham State University.
Kristina Burow
Kristina Burow
Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners
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Kristina Burow
Kristina Burow
Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners
Kristina Burow is focused on the creation and development of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and health tech companies. Since joining ARCH in 2002, she has risen from Associate to Managing Director and has played a significant role in the growth of ARCH’s life sciences portfolio, including multiple public companies exceeding billion-dollar valuations. Prior to joining ARCH, Kristina was an Associate with the Novartis BioVenture Fund in San Diego. As an early employee at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), she directed Chemistry Operations and was active in Business Development where she helped create numerous companies as spinouts from GNF. Kristina holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Thomas Cahill
Thomas Cahill, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder and Managing Partner at Newpath Partners
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Thomas Cahill, M.D., Ph.D.
Thomas Cahill, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder and Managing Partner at Newpath Partners
Tom Cahill, MD, PhD, is the founder and managing partner of Newpath Partners, a Boston-based life science venture firm with a mission to translate groundbreaking scientific discoveries into treatments for patients with a broad range of diseases. Newpath creates and builds most of its portfolio companies at the earliest stage of development, working closely with successful entrepreneurial scientists to align their interests with investors, management teams, and employees.
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Ramnik Xavier, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Advisory Board Chair
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Ramnik Xavier, M.D., Ph.D.
Ramnik Xavier, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Advisory Board Chair
Ramnik Xavier, M.D., Ph.D., is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is also director of the Broad’s Immunology Program and co-director of the Broad’s Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program. He is the Kurt J. Isselbacher Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; director of the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology and Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH); and co-director of the Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics at MIT. His laboratory focuses on systematic characterization of genetic variants to understand the regulation of barrier defense, innate and adaptive immunity; chemical biology to control cellular disease phenotypes suggested by human genetics; molecular mechanisms to determine roles of the microbiome in health and disease; and development of computational approaches to uncover patterns of human and microbial pathway regulation during disease and treatment.
Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
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Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D.
Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D. is a the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group develops and applies chemical proteomic technologies for protein and drug discovery on a global scale and has particular interest in studying biochemical pathways in the nervous system and cancer. Dr. Cravatt is a co-founder of Activx Biosciences (acquired by Kyorin Pharmaceuticals), Abide Therapeutics (acquired by Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals), and Vividion Therapeutics (acquired by Bayer AG). His honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the Royal Society of Chemistry Jeremy Knowles Award, and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the 2022 Wolf Prize in Chemistry.
David Spiegel
David A. Spiegel, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
Michael Rosbash
Michael Rosbash, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
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Michael Rosbash, Ph.D.
Michael Rosbash, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
Michael Rosbash, Ph.D., the Peter Gruber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience, is a Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Brandeis University known for his discoveries concerning circadian rhythms, the cyclical 24-hour period of biological activity that drives daily behavioral patterns. He was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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Richa Saxena, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
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Richa Saxena, Ph.D.
Richa Saxena, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
Richa Saxena, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School; an Assistant in Genetics at the Center for Genomic Medicine Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital; and the Director of Genetics of Sleep and Circadian Research Program in Sleep Epidemiology, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also an Associate Member in the Medical and Population Genetics Program at the Broad Institute.
Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
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Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D.
Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D.
Founder & Advisor
Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D. is a co-Founder of the Broad Institute since 2003 and the Morris Loeb Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the Wolf Prize in Chemistry. He is the co-Founder of numerous successful public biotechnology companies including Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, H3 Biomedicine, and Forma Therapeutics, with a combined valuation of over $85B.
Xiao Chen
Xiao Chen, Ph.D.
Biology
YiQun Chen
YiQun Chen
Biology
Jessica Gasser
Jessica Gasser, Ph.D.
Biology
Shubhroz Gill
Shubhroz Gill, Ph.D.
Biology
Bruce Hua
Bruce Hua, Ph.D.
Chemistry
Liam Hudson
Liam Hudson, Ph.D.
Chemistry
Chueh-Ling Kuo
Chueh-Ling Kuo, Ph.D.
Biomolecular Discovery
Igor Levchenko
Igor Levchenko, Ph.D.
Protein Production
Alyssa Lutservitz
Alyssa Lutservitz, MS
Informatics
Ashish Maurya
Ashish Maurya, Ph.D.
Biology
Andrew Reidenbach
Andrew Reidenbach, Ph.D.
Biomolecular Discovery
David Rhee
David Rhee, Ph.D.
Proteomics
Tiffany Tsang
Tiffany Tsang, Ph.D.
Biology
Hsin-Lan Wen, Ph.D.
Biology

OUR INVESTORS

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CAREERS

Magnet Biomedicine is building a world-class team to unleash the scientific breakthroughs and expertise of our Founders.

We are looking for creative, thoughtful, science-first innovators to join our collaborative team. Come help us realize the potential of molecular glues to achieve the broadest possible impact for patients.

Click the job openings to learn more.

Stay tuned for future job openings
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NEWS

The latest Magnet news and presentations

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09.19.2023

Magnet Biomedicine Emerges from Stealth with $50 Million to Advance Rational Approach to Molecular Glues with TrueGlue™ Discovery Platform

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09.19.2023

Magnet Biomedicine Emerges from Stealth with $50 Million to Advance Rational Approach to Molecular Glues with TrueGlue™ Discovery Platform

Company’s TrueGlue™ discovery platform leverages cutting-edge technology to identify next-generation molecular glues that harness approaches beyond protein degradation

Series A financing co-led by Newpath Partners and ARCH Venture Partners

Co-founded by molecular glue pioneer Stuart Schreiber, and world-renowned scientists Michael Rosbash, Benjamin Cravatt, Richa Saxena, and David Spiegel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., September 19, 2023 — Magnet Biomedicine, a biotechnology company advancing molecular glue discovery with rational selection and design, today announced a $50 million Series A financing co-led by founding and initial investor, Newpath Partners, and ARCH Venture Partners. Magnet is reimagining what is achievable with molecular glues by looking beyond known protein–protein interactions and analyzing the broad protein landscape to pair target proteins with rationally selected presenter proteins to drive therapeutic effects.  

The financing will support Magnet’s differentiated approach to the discovery and development of TrueGlues™—compounds that induce cooperative protein–protein interactions. The investment will further enable advancement of its diverse portfolio of programs spanning several indications, including cardiovascular disease, oncology, and immune disorders.

A Rational Approach to Molecular Glues

Magnet was founded by world-leading molecular glue researcher Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D., 2017 Nobel Laureate Michael Rosbash, Ph.D., chemoproteomics pioneer Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., human geneticist Richa Saxena, Ph.D., and chemical biologist David Spiegel, M.D., Ph.D. The company is led by President and Chief Scientific Officer, Brian Safina, Ph.D.

“Molecular glues offer expansive potential to transform human medicine. Recent advancements, however, have been narrowly focused on tangential approaches such as degradation, leaving much of the potential of true molecular glues untapped,” said Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D., Scientific Co-founder of Magnet. “Technological advancement and innovation in proteomics, high-throughput screening, and bioinformatics are fueling renewed interest in molecular glues—bringing opportunities for rational selection and design of clinically impactful molecular glues within our scientific reach.”

Magnet’s TrueGlue discovery platform combines state-of-the-art screening technologies using proprietary and diverse chemical libraries and human-biology-driven target selection to identify TrueGlues. These small molecules harness approaches beyond protein degradation and offer notable benefits such as restricting drug effects to disease-relevant tissues to avoid toxicities, inducing biological synergy on defined targets, mimicking monoclonal antibodies, and targeting historically undruggable proteins. Magnet is initially progressing TrueGlues to address diseases strongly supported by human biology, with clinically and genetically validated targets and clear opportunities to improve treatment options for patients.

“Our TrueGlue discovery platform enables us to take a broad view of the protein landscape to develop a new class of molecular glues capable of facilitating novel protein–protein interactions with the potential to drive clinically meaningful therapeutic responses in patients,” said Brian Safina, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of Magnet. “We are grateful for the support from ARCH and Newpath as we progress this novel approach.”

“Magnet is advancing a unique approach to molecular glue discovery that offers opportunities to expand the scope of addressable protein targets,” said Thomas Cahill, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Managing Partner at Newpath Partners. “Their scientific leadership is driving forward a new way of creating novel medicines to reach patients across a vast range of indications.”

Magnet Leadership, Board & Co-founders

Magnet is led by industry veterans with deep expertise spanning the biotech and pharma sectors:

  • Brian Safina, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer
  • Bret Williams, Ph.D., Vice President of Biology
  • Matthew Hayward, Ph.D., Vice President of Drug Discovery
  • Jennifer Franklin, Vice President of Administration & Operations

The company’s platform and approach are born from pioneering research from renowned scientific co-founders:

  • Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D., Broad Institute, Harvard University
  • Michael Rosbash, Ph.D., Brandeis University, Nobel Laureate (2017)
  • Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., The Scripps Research Institute
  • Richa Saxena, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Broad Institute
  • David Spiegel, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University

Magnet’s Board of Directors includes:

  • Thomas Cahill, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Managing Partner at Newpath Partners
  • Kristina Burow, Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners

“With a stellar team and industry-leading foundational science from leaders in the molecular glue landscape, Magnet is poised to drive new innovation and bring forth a robust portfolio of novel molecular glue medicines with the potential to transform the way we address human disease,” said Kristina Burow, Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners.

About Magnet Biomedicine

Magnet Biomedicine is a biotechnology company advancing molecular glue discovery with rational selection and design. The company’s TrueGlue discovery platform applies cutting-edge advancements in human biology and proteomics to identify fit-for-purpose glues that maximize therapeutic impact and offer prominent benefits such as improving selectivity, inducing biological synergy on defined targets, and addressing historically undruggable proteins. Magnet is harnessing the vast untapped potential of TrueGlues to tackle multiple disease areas and biological mechanisms, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and immune disorders. For more information, visit our website magnetbio.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X, formerly known as Twitter.

About Newpath Partners

Newpath Partners is a life science and biotechnology venture firm focused on creating companies with world-leading academic scientists to pioneer revolutionary therapeutics intended to mitigate suffering and death from disease. With each investment, Newpath seeks to optimize performance by aligning the interests of academic founders, management teams, and investor groups. Newpath is dedicated to excellent science and to forming partnerships based on trust and a shared vision. To learn more, visit www.newpath.partners.

About ARCH Venture Partners

ARCH Venture Partners creates and invests in groundbreaking life science and technology companies. The firm is a recognized leader in commercializing technologies developed at academic institutions, corporate research groups and national laboratories. ARCH invests primarily in companies it co-founds with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, bringing innovations in life sciences and physical sciences to market.

For more information, visit www.archventure.com.

Media Contact

Peg Rusconi

Verge Scientific Communications

peg.rusconi@vergescientific.com