Drug discovery startup based on UA research receives $4 million seed funding
The preclinical stage company was founded to commercialize drugs to treat multiple cancers.
Graduate research assistant Aidan McMahon is one of many chemistry and biochemistry students who have helped to drive the research over the years.
Photo credit: Mohammed Al-Alnadhairi
A drug discovery company co-founded by researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Dundee 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.
Chris Hulme
Noelle Haro-Gomez/University of Arizona Health Sciences
Its technologies are based on research carried out by company co-founders Christopher Hulme, professor of medicinal chemistry at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, and Curtis Thorne, associate professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson. Both also hold appointments at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and the BIO5 Institute. They developed the technology with students from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well as their long-time collaborator, Sourav Banerjee of Dundee, with early financial support from the Critical Path Institute’s (C-Path) Translational Therapeutics Accelerator (TRxA) and Flinn Foundation.
Curtis Thorne
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.
Thirty-year veteran drug hunter Hulme noted, “Our most advanced molecules derive from an extensive drug discovery effort toward Alzheimer’s disease. Re-engineering led to new molecules that we truly hope will benefit patients with 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.
Sourav Banerjee
University of Dundee
The team worked with Tech Launch Arizona, the U of A commercialization arm, to patent the technology and then license it to Branch.
“The results that Hulme and Thorne have demonstrated and the innovation we have worked with them to patent and license to Branch are a great display of how research can lead to real-world, life-changing impact,” said Bruce Burgess, director of venture development for Tech Launch Arizona. “We’re excited about the next steps for Branch and look forward to much more from the startup in the coming months and years.”
Maaike Everts, PhD, executive director of TRxA, said, “C-Path is proud to have supported this team at a very early stage. Their approach exemplifies the kind of science we aim to catalyze — innovative, collaborative, and ultimately translational. We are thrilled to see their vision moving closer to the clinic and to patients who need better options.”
Approximately 90 percent 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 signaling and stimulating tumor death. By creating specific drugs that can selectively inhibit multiple validated targets in complementary signaling pathways, the technology seeks to create more effective treatments that can also help overcome cancer progression and drug resistance.