Black Diamond: Mapping allostery

Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc. emerged from stealth on Tuesday with a platform to mine and drug baskets of allosteric mutant oncogenes using troves of human sequencing data that contain non-catalytic mutations previously deemed non-actionable. The company debuted with $20 million in a tranched series A round from Versant Ventures and represents the first start-up to launch from Versant’s Ridgeline incubator in Basel.

Allosteric mutations occur outside of the catalytic site and some can become oncogenic if they alter kinase function, often through causing conformational changes that make kinase activity more permissive. Unlike catalytic site mutations, oncogenic allosteric mutations don’t respond to standard of care kinase inhibitors, Black Diamond co-founder and CEO David Epstein told BioCentury...