CU Boulder pre-seed investment fuels cancer ‘moonshot’ spinout Illumen Therapeutics
In an ongoing effort to bridge a pervasive investment gap in innovation funding, the has awarded pre-seed funding to Illumen Therapeutics, developing cancer treatments based on discoveries from startup co-founder Roy Parker’s lab at CU Boulder.
Venture Partners at CU Boulder recently created a pre-seed investment mechanism to help bridge the so-called “valley of death” between research and commercialization, where even high-potential start-ups can sometimes get lost, saidBryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. “When somebody creates an innovation with broad potential to be translated out into a new venture, there is now funding to support the earliest stages of that new company,” said Rees. “This was a missing piece.”
The point of the pre-seed funding is “to bridge that gap between promise and follow-on investments,” he said. “We are building upon the brilliance of our faculty; they’re the ones who are saying, ‘I am trying to solve the hardest problems in the world’.”
Pre-seed investments are made in promising companies translating CU Boulder innovations through CU Boulder License Equity Holdings (CUBLEH), a nonprofit entity separate from the university but run in partnership with it. Recognizing that a compelling startup could spin out from particular research or innovation is good for the university, researchers and society at-large, said Rees. “This is where the university really is stepping into opportunity and even responsibility to ensure that the products of its research are having that real-world impact,” he said. “This is why the pre-seed investment is so critical.”
The fund is intended to help energized, high-potential startups as they prepare for outside investment, a critical moment on their path to commercialization, said Hannah Nelson, associate director of licensing at Venture Partners. “Pre-seed funding gets placed in companies where we see momentum, an exciting commercial opportunity and a motivated founder, and I think thatIllumen Therapeutics has shown all three of those things,” she said. “Another piece of what prioritizes companies for the pre-seed funding is that they’re already at that stage of development where we feel like this funding can unlock follow-on funds to get them to their next big inflection point.”
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Arming the ‘guardian of the genome’
Illumen Therapeutics is focused on a cancer treatment ‘moonshot’ that pursues the long-sought ‘holy grail’ of drug development—but with an entirely new approach. That elusive goal revolves around a tumor suppressor gene called p53, dubbed the ‘guardian of the genome’ because it prevents damaged cells from multiplying, which blocks the formation and growth of tumors linked to a wide range of cancers.
“P53 is a key protein mutated in 85 to 95 percent of human cancers, and its loss allows cells to grow in an uncontrolled way,” explained Roy Parker, company co-founder,director of the BioFrontiers Institute andCech-Leinwand Endowed Chair of CU Boulder Biochemistry. “If you could restore p53 function, the hope is that would actually cause the tumors to either die or grow less.”
For several decades, popular strategies to target p53 have focused on blocking gene-inhibiting proteins. “There has been literally billions of dollars spent on this idea trying to target these inhibitors of p53,” said Parker, but all attempts have failed due to unexpected consequences like increased toxicity and a feedback loop that further suppresses p53. “The overall goal of increasing functional p53 is still a really important idea, and we just need ways to do that,” he said.
The leading-edge science behind Illumen Therapeutics, which emerged from the Parker Lab several years ago (including the work of postdoc fellow), is based on a novel strategy to target PARN, an enzyme that affects p53. Inhibiting PARN to enhance functional p53 could potentially treat nearly half of all human tumors in aggressive cancers with limited therapeutic options like colorectal, triple-negative breast, pancreatic and others.“ That seems to be working, so that’s kind of proof of principle that if you could help p53, it might be really useful,” said Parker.
Parker envisions that any new therapeutic developed by Illumen will be used in combination with others to improve their effectiveness and could target subclasses of tumors that function differently than their broader tumor type. “A drug which even treats one subtype of cancer is still really important,” he said. “I’d be thrilled if we could reach that far.”
“We think it’s the key”
Despite the originality of the approach, the work was shelved until 2023, when Nelson connected with, a Boulder-based serial entrepreneur with biosciences expertise, who was looking for ideas with solid commercialization potential. One of the technologies Nelson thought might be a good fit was the PARN-p53 research from Parker’s lab.
Right away, Blomquist knew he wanted to learn more.
“When I met Roy and saw his data, it was like lights and sirens were going off,” he said. “That phenomenal discovery made by Roy’s lab may mean we can restore functional p53–that holy grail of cancer drug development. We think it’s the key.”
Blomquist, a trained geneticist, has spent decades of his business career working in oncology drug discovery, development and commercialization, and the more he dug into the technology, talking with experts, the more promising the innovation seemed. “I reached out to experts at MD Anderson [Cancer Center] and CU Anschutz, and asked, ‘What do you think about this therapeutic strategy?’ And their eyes popped open, and their response was, ‘This could be the breakthrough we’ve been dreaming of’.”
Blomquist co-founded Illumen in 2024 and credits both Venture Partners and Parker for helping build the strong team that’s now moving Illumen’s work forward. “The key role Venture Partners plays is so different than other institutions,” said Blomquist. “They really, truly work as a partner, helping to understand the science, how to connect with potential investors, and on and on. It’s a unique, strong and valuable partnership.”
The pre-seed funding is critical to helping Illumen reach its next inflection point, said Blomquist. “Having that investment got us started to de-risk the project, to show that this is a valid target and to duplicate the data, while we work on the rest of the financial raise,” he said
Rees also believes the investment is a solid one. “We have worked closely with the Parker Lab and with Bob for over a year, so we have a certain level of insight into the magnitude of the clinical impact, the strength of the underlying research and the compelling business case here in order to make the investment,” he said. “At the same time, that investment is absolutely necessary to hit those milestones and generate follow-on investor and partner interest.”
The passion behind Illumen is also personal for Blomquist, who lost his wife to triple-negative breast cancer in 2008. “This is why I get up in the morning, to make a difference in people’s lives. I can’t help my late wife, but what if we can help others? What if by developing a treatment with Roy’s technology we could turn treating cancer into a chronic illness? So that’s why I’m motivated to do something,” he said. “We’re all trying to make a difference.”
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