Kezar co-founder Christopher Kirk, Ph.D. began his work on the unique function of the immunoproteasome at Proteolix in 2005, while working on the compound that would become the successful multiple myeloma drug KYPROLIS™ (carfilzomib). As VP of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which acquired Proteolix in 2009, Christopher led the efforts to develop the first selective inhibitors of the immunoproteasome and designed multiple studies demonstrating their profound immunomodulatory effects. In parallel with this work, Christopher and Kezar co-founder Jack Taunton, Ph.D. collaborated on several research projects involving protein secretion. This collaboration inspired a belief in the strong synergies between protein degradation and protein secretion, two fertile areas for drug discovery with platform potential. In 2014, Christopher and Kezar co-founder John Fowler began developing the business plan for Kezar, acting on a longstanding desire to work together and build a world-class company. In 2015, John and Christopher raised $23M and negotiated a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Amgen for the Onyx immunoproteasome inhibitor patent estate. Now underway, John and Christopher are excited to leverage their complementary skill sets to build Kezar into a leader in small molecule drug development.
Helm Pharmaceuticals is a Chappaqua, NY-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Genesis Bioventures, Inc. is a Surrey, BC-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Yield10 Bioscience is an agricultural bioscience company focusing on the development of disruptive technologies to produce step-change improvements in crop yield for food and feed crops to enhance global food security. Experts forecast that food production must be increased by over 70% in the next 35 years to feed the growing global population, which is expected to increase from 7 billion to more than 9.6 billion by 2050. Yield10 is focused on new agricultural biotechnology approaches to improve fundamental elements of plant metabolism through enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and directed carbon utilization. Yield10 is working to develop, validate and commercialize new traits and identify gene editing targets in several key crops including canola, soybean and corn. Yield10 was launched by Metabolix, Inc. in 2015 and is traded on Nasdaq (YTEN). Yield10 is headquartered in Woburn, MA and has an additional agricultural science facility with greenhouses in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Castle Biosciences, Inc. specializes in diagnostic tests for cancers. Founded in 2008, the company goal has been to help advance the care for cancers through objective testing. Our team works with outstanding members of the oncology community throughout the discovery, development and utilization of these tests. Currently, Castle Biosciences has tests to help doctors treat glioblastoma, uveal melanoma, low grade gliomas. We anticipate tests for thymoma and esophageal cancer to be on the market in the near future (1Q-1H, 2012) as they are going through final validation.