SILICON THERAPEUTICS ANNOUNCES USD15.0 MILLION SERIES A LED BY CHENGWEI
CAPITAL TO ADVANCE PIPELINE USING PROPRIETARY IN SILICO MODELS.
Boston, MA; October 19, 2016: Silicon Therapeutics (STx), a computational drug discovery company
creating novel small molecule drugs for difficult to target proteins, today announced the finalization of its
series A financing led by Chengwei Capital, one of China's largest and oldest independent evergreen
Venture Capital firms. Silicon Therapeutics will use its proprietary In Silico drug discovery engine known
as INSITE to progress its own pipeline. INSITE was developed at BIDMC by Drs. Elliot Chaikof, Lijun Sun
and Finith Jernigan, III. INSITE is the outcome of a number of years of research aimed at difficult drug
targets," said Dr. Sun. "By applying INSITE, we have already had successes in targeting protein-protein
interactions, nuclear receptors, and metalloproteins."
Dr. Sun, a cofounder of Silicon Therapeutics, will continue to serve as Scientific Advisory Board
Chairman. Dr. Jernigan, also a cofounder, will join Silicon Therapeutics full time as CTO. Mr. Lanny Sun,
Venture Partner with Chengwei, will become the company’s CEO.
The funding will be used by Silicon Therapeutics to further develop its internal pipeline and INSITE - the
In Silico Drug Design engine. INSITE discovery engine is a computational tool which recapitulates the
system dynamics of protein ligand binding and will have exciting implications for targeting previously
difficult to work with targets. Specifically, it’s better able to identify binding pockets and energy minimas
for the purposes of creating drugs for proteins that experience significant conformational changes such as
protein to protein interactions. STX plans to deploy this drug engine against highly implicated and
validated targets in immuno-oncology as a start to building an integrated computational drug discovery
company
ABOUT THE CO-FOUNDERS
Silicon Therapeutics’ founders and advisors are first and foremost drug discovers. They include:
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Dr. Elliot Chaikof, Surgeon-in-Chief and Chair of Surgery at BIDMC
Dr. Lijun Sun, Director for Center for Drug Discovery at BIDMC
Dr. Finith Jernigan, III, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at BIDMC
ABOUT SILICON THERAPEUTICS
Silicon Therapeutics, a computational drug discovery company, is focused on targeting the high hanging
fruit within drug discovery that are currently considered out of reach. We are building the most accurate in
silico models of human proteins for the purposes of drug discovery to unlock targets previously
considered difficult or inaccessible. Sitting at the intersection of computing and chemistry, our drug
discovery process and algorithms better simulate the system dynamics of targets, enabling us to design
lead compounds for targets that were previously considered "undruggable". We are also constantly
striving to improve by harnessing new advances in technology and developing new models. Our science,
our team and our mission is to apply our technology to provide more therapeutic treatments for patients.
ABOUT CHENGWEI CAPITAL
Chengwei is China’s oldest independent VC firm and one of China’s last remaining evergreen funds. Our
capital base is permanent and from some of the top institutional investors in the US and globally.
Chengwei is committed to investing in innovative businesses and long-term repeatable franchises. It was
established in 1999 and is based out of Shanghai with offices in HK and San Francisco.