Goldman Sachs leads $132 million investment in cancer start-up Alterome

A start-up cofounded by Massachusetts General Hospital oncologist Ryan Corcoran and serial entrepreneur Eric Murphy has raised $132 million to put toward new cancer drugs. San Diego–based Alterome Therapeutics is advancing two lead drug candidates in parallel. One goes after the oncogene AKT1 , whose E17K-mutated form can lead to breast and gynecologic cancers. The other targets the KRAS gene , whose mutated forms can drive non-small-cell lung, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers, among others. Both drugs are small molecules selected in part by machine learning software that Alterome calls Kraken. With the AKT1 E17K protein blocker, Alterome is aiming to develop a covalent drug that binds the mutant's lysine amino acid. That's something CEO Murphy says he's been pushing toward since he was a postdoctoral fellow working with David Cheresh at Scripps Research. " Lysine capture is not trivial . It's a tougher area," Murphy says. "It's something that people