Syros closes $53M series B for super-enhancers
Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Watertown, Mass.) raised $53 million in a series B round led by an undisclosed Boston-based public investment firm. Polaris Partners; Aisling Capital; and Redmile Group invested for the first time, while current investors Flagship Ventures; ARCH Venture Partners; WuXi PharmaTech Corporate Venture; and Alexandria Venture Investments also participated.
Proceeds of this financing will be used to bring Syros' cancer programs toward clinical trials and investigate new therapeutic applications of its gene control technology. Syros is mapping super-enhancer locations in cancer cells to identify new druggable oncogenic targets. The company has licensed intellectual property covering THZ1, a phenylaminopyrimidine that inhibits cyclin dependent kinase 7 ( CDK7), from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and super-enhancer technology from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (see SciBx, July 24, 2014). ...