Obsidian: Fine-tuning therapeutic protein expression with approved drugs

Obsidian is building a tool kit of engineered proteins whose expression can be finely tuned with FDA-approved small molecules, and its first application is in boosting the efficacy of cell therapies through a deal with Celgene. Founded by Atlas Venture in 2015, the start-up thinks it can deploy the tech in any modality where proteins can be manufactured.

The centerpieces of Obsidian Therapeutics Inc.’s technology are its drug-responsive domains -- small domains that are fused to a protein of interest. Each domain is stabilized by an FDA-approved small molecule: in the presence of the molecule, the protein remains stable and carries out its normal functions; in the absence of the small molecule, the protein becomes unstable and degrades...