Obsidian raises $49.5M series A

After two years in stealth mode, Obsidian Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) emerged with a $49.5 million series A round led by GV. Fellow new investors Takeda Ventures Inc., Vertex Ventures HC, Amgen Ventures and ShangPharma Investment Group also participated, as did founding investor Atlas Venture and existing investor Alexandria Venture Investments.

The newco is creating tunable gene and cell therapies that are activated by administration of undisclosed approved small molecules. Obsidian has designed a suite of destabilizing domains that it can engineer into therapeutic genes to ensure their protein products are rapidly degraded unless the requisite small molecule is administered. ...