Magnet Biomedicine launches for molecular glues

Another molecular glue company has entered the growing field, and with big names behind it. Magnet Biomedicine has emerged from stealth with $50 million to pursue the monovalent small molecules that draw two proteins close together. Its founders include chemical biologists Stuart Schreiber, Benjamin Cravatt, and David Spiegel, as well as geneticists Richa Saxena and 2017 Nobel laureate Michael Rosbash. Molecular glues are typically used to induce protein degradation by binding together a target protein and an E3 ligase, which marks the protein for destruction. While Magnet may pursue degraders, it aims to look beyond that classical use, according to CEO Brian Safina. Safina says the firm is interested in tissue-specific inhibition. The glue would bind to a protein specific to the target tissue, which Magnet calls a presenter protein, and to the protein it's intended to inhibit. "If the binding and the mechanism of action is dependent upon that