molecular-glue
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SEED Therapeutics
SEED Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering rationally designed molecular glue degraders to treat diseases driven by proteins long considered undruggable. Powered by its proprietary RITE3 discovery platform - which pairs disease-causing target proteins with the most suitable of more than 600 human E3 ligases - SEED reprograms the cell's own ubiquitin-proteasome system to destroy harmful proteins rather than merely block them. Founded in 2020 by CEO Lan Huang and a group of protein-degradation pioneers including Nobel laureate Avram Hershko, the company advanced its lead oral RBM39 degrader ST-01156 into first-in-human Phase 1 trials in early 2026, with a broader pipeline spanning oncology, neurodegeneration, immunology and virology backed by partners Eli Lilly and Eisai.
Lan Huang
Lan Huang is a chemist turned biotech entrepreneur and the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of SEED Therapeutics, a New York clinical-stage company designing molecular glues that direct the cell's own disposal machinery to break down disease-driving proteins once considered undruggable. She earlier founded BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals and took it public on NASDAQ. A UC Berkeley PhD who solved an early E3 ubiquitin ligase structure, she built SEED around targeted protein degradation with collaborators including Nobel laureate Avram Hershko, and secured partnerships with Eli Lilly and Eisai.
Fortitude Biomedicines
Fortitude Biomedicines is a Waltham, Massachusetts biotech that launched in early 2026 with $13M in seed financing to develop next-generation antibody-based therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer. Its proprietary GLUE-DAC platform bolts molecular glue degraders onto antibody-drug conjugates, aiming to use catalytic targeted protein degradation to widen the therapeutic window of ADCs and overcome the resistance that has dogged the field. Its lead program, FORT-202, is a first-in-class T-cell targeting bispecific antibody for axial spondyloarthritis expected to reach the clinic in the first half of 2027.
Jesse Chen
Jesse Chen is the founder, president and CEO of Fortitude Biomedicines, a Waltham, Massachusetts biopharmaceutical company that launched in January 2026 with $13 million in seed financing. A serial biotech entrepreneur with an MIT PhD in biological chemistry, Chen previously co-founded TRIANA Biomedicines and Avilar Therapeutics, was the founding scientific hire at Kymera Therapeutics where he built its targeted protein degradation platform, and held discovery roles at Moderna and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. At Fortitude he is betting that molecular glue payloads, packaged into a platform he calls GLUE-DAC, can overcome the drug resistance that limits today's antibody-drug conjugates and extend them into autoimmune disease.
Darrin Miles
Darrin Miles is the President and CEO of Nested Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts precision oncology company that launched in 2022 with $125 million in financing to hunt for cancer-driving mutations hiding in plain sight. A commercialization leader with more than two decades in healthcare, Miles spent 14 years at Genentech shepherding landmark cancer brands and later served as Chief Commercial Officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where he helped bring the first mutant-IDH therapies to acute myeloid leukemia patients. At Nested, he is translating computational biophysics, genomics, and chemical biology into drugs aimed at targets the rest of the field calls undruggable.
Nested Therapeutics
Nested Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech building small-molecule precision oncology drugs that go after cancer driver mutations long written off as undruggable. Founded in 2021 and launched publicly in 2022 with $125M, the company pairs structural biology, computational biophysics and chemistry to find hidden, druggable pockets in cancer's most stubborn targets. Its lead program, NST-628, is a brain-penetrant pan-RAF/MEK molecular glue for RAS/MAPK-driven solid tumors, now in Phase 1 with early clinical activity reported at AACR 2026.
Phil Chamberlain
Phil Chamberlain is the co-founder, president and CEO of Neomorph, a San Diego biotech building molecular glue degraders to drug proteins long written off as untouchable. An Oxford-trained structural biologist, he spent a decade at Celgene and Bristol Myers Squibb decoding how thalidomide works at the atomic level, then turned that science into a company that has signed partnerships with AbbVie, Biogen and Novo Nordisk worth billions and pushed its lead degrader into the clinic.
Jorge Dimartino
Jorge F. DiMartino, M.D., Ph.D., is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Clinical and Translational Development at Plexium, a San Diego-based biotech pioneering targeted protein degradation. A physician-scientist trained in genetics, immunology, and pediatric oncology across UC Berkeley, Cornell, UC San Diego, and Stanford, DiMartino has spent over two decades advancing cancer drugs from bench to bedside. His fingerprints are on three now-marketed therapies: vismodegib, venetoclax, and enasidenib - each a breakthrough in its own right. At Plexium, he oversees clinical programs targeting SMARCA2, IKZF2, CDK2, and CRAF using the company's DELTA Discovery platform, a novel approach to degrading proteins previously considered undruggable.