BRIEF—Novel RNA platform launches with $50 million investment

Biotech incubator Flagship Pioneering has launched a new company in Cambridge, USA, focused on a novel RNA-based technology with potential to treat both rare and common diseases.

Flagship is backing Alltrna, the first transfer RNA (tRNA) platform company, with an initial commitment of $50 million.

A number of diseases stem from a certain nonsense mutation, for which Alltrna has designed a tRNA that can read and deliver the correct amino acid, thereby restoring the production of the full-length protein.

Founding chief executive Lovisa Afzelius said: "We have built the world's first tRNA therapeutic platform by combining the extensive learnings at Flagship in RNA design and delivery with a reinforced learning framework that unlocks the relationship of tRNA modality to biological output, disease application, and drug design."

Alltrna is also looking at the potential for tRNAs to provide an entire framework for the regulation and expression of the protein universe to treat disease.