A drug discovery company co-founded by researchers at the University of Dundee and the University of Arizona has received $4 million in venture funding.
Branch Therapeutics, founded in November 2024, is a preclinical stage company seeking to develop drugs that are orally bioavailable, well-tolerated, and can treat multiple cancer types.
Its technologies are based on research originally funded by the Ninewells Cancer Campaign in the UK and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. The work was carried out by company co-founder Dr Sourav Banerjee from Dundee in partnership with his long-time collaborators Professor Christopher Hulme and Dr Curtis Thorne, from the University of Arizona Cancer Center.
The team has been working for four years on developing compounds with an emphasis on colorectal cancer, but with further utility likely for breast and liver cancer.
The $4 million investment from GKCC, LLC, will support the company’s focus on developing colorectal cancer therapeutics and taking the target molecule through safety studies and towards Phase 1 clinical trials. Branch is based in Arizona, with trials anticipated to ultimately take place across the U.S. and Scotland.
Dr Banerjee, Senior Lecturer and UKRI Future Leader Fellow at the Dundee’s School of Medicine, said, “I am very excited that we have received this investment, and I am cautiously optimistic as we still have some way to go before bringing our new colorectal cancer drug into the clinic.
“Ultimately, our aim is to identify a ‘one-shot’ drug which will be orally available, brain-penetrant and effective in inhibiting multiple key cancer promoting pathways at the same time.”
Professor Hulme, who is originally from Bolton and has built a stellar, 30-year career as a ‘drug hunter’, said, “Our most advanced molecules derive from an extensive drug discovery effort toward Alzheimer’s disease. Re-engineering led to new molecules which we are truly hopeful will benefit patients with cancer.”
The team developed the technology with early financial support from the Critical Path Institute’s (C-Path) Translational Therapeutics Accelerator (TRxA) and Flinn Foundation.
Approximately 90% of colorectal cancer cases are associated with overactivation of a growth signal called WNT, with another third of cases involving the growth pathway PI3K.
Branch has a therapeutic approach to safely inhibit these pathways, restoring healthy signalling and stimulating tumour death. By creating specific drugs that can selectively inhibit multiple validated targets in complementary signalling pathways, the technology seeks to create more effective treatments that can also help overcome cancer progression and drug resistance.