The Boston biotech teaching the cell's own recycling system to hunt down the proteins that drive lethal cancers - one KRAS mutation at a time.
For four decades, the KRAS protein wore a single, discouraging label: undruggable. Mutated versions of it drive roughly a quarter of all human tumors - lung, colorectal, pancreatic - and traditional medicine had almost nothing to offer. PAQ Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is chasing a different verb. Instead of inhibiting KRAS, it aims to degrade it - to remove the protein from the cell entirely.
The method borrows from biology the body already runs every minute of every day. Autophagy - literally "self-eating" - is the cell's most versatile cleanup system, the mechanism whose discovery won Yoshinori Ohsumi the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine. PAQ's platform, called ATTEC (autophagosome-tethering compounds), consists of small molecules that grab a disease-causing substrate and tether it to the autophagy machinery, marking it for destruction. Where conventional degraders are limited to proteins, ATTECs can, in principle, target aggregates, lipids, mitochondria, and even pathogens.
Founded in 2020 out of research from Professor Boxun Lu's lab at Fudan University in Shanghai, the company started with genetic neurodegenerative disorders in mind. It has since focused its clinical firepower on the place where the need is loudest and the biology is proven: KRAS-driven cancer.
Autophagosome-tethering compounds - small molecules that catalyze autophagy-dependent degradation of a broad range of substrates: proteins, aggregates, lipids, mitochondria, pathogens.
A potent, selective KRAS G12D degrader and PAQ's lead oncology candidate. First patient dosed in Q1 2025, with best-in-class potential in preclinical comparisons.
A pan-KRAS degrader designed to hit a broad set of KRAS mutations. First patient dosed in January 2026, broadening the reach of PAQ's oncology pipeline.
Bars illustrate relative stage of development, not exact completion.
PAQ is a clinical-stage biotech: it funds internal discovery and clinical work through venture financing, aiming to advance its degrader candidates to value-inflection points. Its cap table draws the venture arms of two pharma giants - Merck (MRL Ventures Fund) and Johnson & Johnson (JJDC).
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead / Key Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | Undisclosed | 2020–21 | Nest.Bio Ventures, Matrix Partners China |
| Series A | $30M | Jul 2021 | Sherpa Healthcare Partners (lead); Huagai Capital, MSA Capital, MRL Ventures Fund |
| Series B | $39M | May 2025 | MRL Ventures Fund & Bayland Capital (co-leads); J&J Innovation - JJDC, LAV Fund, BioTrack Capital, Sherpa |
Nan Ji, Huaixiang Hao and Fudan University's Boxun Lu establish the company around ATTEC autophagy-degradation science.
The company launches publicly with a Series A led by Sherpa Healthcare Partners to build its degradation platform.
PAQ partners with Insilico to apply AI-driven drug discovery to autophagy-dependent degradation.
First patient dosed in Phase 1 for the selective KRAS G12D degrader, alongside a $39M Series B.
First patient dosed in Phase 1 for PAQ's pan-KRAS degrader, broadening its oncology pipeline.
PAQ is a clinical-stage biotech developing small-molecule degraders that use autophagy to destroy disease-causing proteins, starting with KRAS degraders for cancer.
ATTEC stands for autophagosome-tethering compound - a small molecule that tethers a disease-causing substrate to the autophagy machinery so the cell degrades it. Unlike protein-only degraders, ATTECs can also target aggregates, lipids, mitochondria and pathogens.
PT0253, a selective KRAS G12D degrader, and PT0511, a pan-KRAS degrader. Both are in Phase 1 clinical trials for KRAS-driven cancers.
About $111M total, including a $30M Series A in 2021 and a $39M Series B in 2025, with investors such as Merck's MRL Ventures Fund and Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC.
PAQ is headquartered at 100 Summit Drive, Burlington, Massachusetts, in the greater Boston biotech hub.