Siftr Bio will design new ADC linkers

Chemists from Ed Tate’s laboratory at Imperial College London have launched a company, Siftr Bio, that aims to improve the chemistry used to link antibodies to cancer-killing molecules in therapies known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

Siftr is led by CEO Daniel Lucy and chief scientific officer Archie Wall, who cofounded the firm along with Tate. Siftr’s origins can be traced to 2019, when Lucy joined Tate’s lab to work on enzyme-responsive chemistry. When Wall later joined the lab with experience developing ADCs, Lucy got excited about the opportunities to use his chemistry in that context, he says. The idea for Siftr grew from there.

ADCs have become increasingly popular with pharmaceutical firms in recent years. The drugs “are exciting because they work,” Lucy says, but there “has not been much innovation” in linker chemistry. Lucy says Siftr could make a real impact by improving spatial and temporal control of ADCs. These qualities could be especially useful as the drug class moves beyond oncology, Siftr’s current focus, and into other disease areas.

In July, another firm that Tate cofounded, Myricx Bio, netted a substantial series A fundraising round after pivoting from small-molecule medicines to ADCs. Siftr is at a much earlier stage, having raised $1.3 million in preseed funding.

As a founder-CEO, Lucy has participated in multiple accelerators and programs to help him develop Siftr, which is based in Imperial’s White City incubator. With cash in hand and a platform for developing new linkers, Lucy says he is now scanning the landscape to see where first to focus within the oncology space.