Startup leverages biological proximity to target undruggable proteins associated with longevity, neurodegeneration and metabolic disease.
San Francisco-based biotech General Proximity has emerged from stealth with $16 million in funding to advance the development of induced proximity medicines targeting ‘undruggable’ proteins associated with conditions such as cancer, cardiometabolic disease, neurodegeneration and longevity. Founded in 2019, the company aims to leverage the concept of biological proximity, with an approach centered on the manipulation of “effector proteins”, which regulate biological processes by modulating the activity of other proteins.
General Proximity claims that this collective network of proteins, referred to as the “effectome,” represents a vast and largely untapped resource for developing new therapies. By discovering and using the most effective proximity mechanisms for each target, the company says its platform enables precise modification of disease-driving proteins, and facilitates the development of treatments capable of modulating protein activity, degradation, refolding and re-localization.
“Biological proximity—the nearness or interaction of two or more (macro)molecules—is a master regulator of biology,” said founder and CEO, Dr Armand B. Cognetta III. “By achieving precise control of proximity through our OmniTAC platform, we are able to modulate ‘undruggable’ targets more effectively than other approaches. Control of proximity equals control of biology.”
With initial drug candidates already in hand, General Proximity has garnered support from prominent investors and institutions. A recent $8 million seed round was led by Aydin Senkut at Felicis, following a pre-seed round spearheaded by Y Combinator and Jim Dahl of Rock Creek. The seed round was joined by longevity focused VCs, including age1, Healthspan Capital and Lifespan Vision Ventures.
“It was clear from our first meeting with Armand that General Proximity is going to be one of the technologies that propels us towards cures for cancer and many other diseases,” said Senkut. “We quickly became convinced that their cutting-edge proximity approach would enable them to solve some of the most ambitious and consequential challenges in drug discovery, paving the way for a bold new era of human healthspan and longevity extension.”
Other investors in General Proximity include Modi Ventures and Wilson Sonsini, alongside an eye-catching list of individuals including Google AI boss Jeff Dean, Khosla’s Uri Lopatin, Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann, Asimov CEO Alec Nielsen, and Mammoth CEO Trevor Martin, among others.
The company has also received non-dilutive grants from the National Cancer Institute and ARPA-H, receiving a $3 million award through the ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health in October to support the development of next-generation proximity therapeutics for women’s cancers. It has also secured five Golden Ticket awards from major pharmaceutical companies, granting access to resources and mentorship, and is part of Johnson & Johnson’s JLabs biotech incubator.
General Proximity says its team includes leading scientists from Scripps Research Institute, the Broad Institute, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and UCSF, as well as pharmaceutical veterans from companies like Novartis, Merck, GSK and Genentech.
“We believe proximity medicines are the future of small-molecule drug discovery and have the potential to lower global disease burden more than any other current therapeutic modality,” added Cognetta.
