Revolver Therapeutics secures £572k funding boost for cancer therapy
Revolver Therapeutics has secured £572,000 of funding to support its work in treatments for colorectal cancers.
The funding round was led by QantX, with follow-on funding from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, and the University of Bath.
It supports Revolver Therapeutics’ novel approach to treating colorectal cancers by shutting down transcription factors, which have been considered to be ‘undruggable’. Transcription factors act like master regulators of disease inside cells, controlling which genes are turned on or off.
In cancer, they can drive tumour growth, survival and resistance to treatment, but they have been notoriously hard to target with conventional drugs. They sit deep inside the cell’s nucleus and lack the ‘binding pockets’ that conventional small molecules typically dock into.
Revolver’s treatments are built around specially designed peptides – small, protein-like molecules – discovered using its proprietary Transcription Block Survival platform, a technology spun out of the University of Bath.
The platform finds peptides that can get inside cells and switch off these previously unreachable targets, overcoming a long-standing barrier that has held back this kind of therapy.
The new funding will allow Revolver to develop both its platform and its pipeline of new treatments for colorectal cancer with unmet medical needs.
Jody Mason, Chief Scientific Officer of Revolver Therapeutics and Professor of Biochemistry in the University of Bath’s Department of Life Sciences, said, “This funding is a huge vote of confidence in the team and the science we’ve built here at Bath.
“For years, transcription factors have been seen as some of the most important – yet most stubborn – targets in cancer, sitting beyond the reach of conventional drugs. Backing like this is exactly what a spin-out needs to take bold science from the lab and turn it into something that could genuinely help patients.
“We’ve already shown we can stop tumour cells growing in the lab while cracking the challenge of getting our molecules inside cells – a hurdle that has held this field back for years. This investment lets us build on that progress, starting with colorectal cancer, and move closer to new treatments for the people who need them most. We’re hugely grateful to our investors for believing in what we’re trying to achieve – for colorectal cancer and beyond.”
Revolver Therapeutics was spun out of the University of Bath with the support of the Technology Transfer team in Research and Innovation Services (RIS), which helped translate Professor Jody Mason’s pioneering research into a commercial venture and continues to back the company as it grows. It is a strong example of the world-class science emerging from the University and being taken from the lab towards real-world impact for patients.
Jennifer Rogers, Technology Transfer team, Research and Innovation Services, University of Bath, said, “We are delighted to see Revolver Therapeutics, a spin-out from the University, continue to attract investment and move forward on its mission to inhibit the transcription factors that are critical for cancer cell proliferation. It’s a wonderful example of how university research can grow into a company with the potential to change patients’ lives, and we’re proud to have supported the team on this journey from the very beginning.”
