Hot biotech startup makes its home here

With the potential to make any protein-based drug more potent or last longer, researchers Deepshikha Datta, William Goddard and David Tirrell could have introduced their laboratory discovery anywhere in the country.

But the California Institute of Technology researchers have started Allozyne Inc. in laboratory space on Eastlake Avenue East with assistance from Seattle-based Accelerator Corp., a biotechnology incubator.


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Allozyne co-founder Deepshikha Datta, left, and Kenneth Grabstein are the only two employees of the startup, which will create new therapeutic proteins for drugs.

Allozyne, incorporated three weeks ago, is currently a private company with just two employees -- co-founder Datta and Kenneth Grabstein, a veteran biotechnology industry executive who will serve as Allozyne's chief scientific officer.

Goddard and Tirrell, two Caltech professors, will serve on its scientific advisory board.

The company marks the fifth startup backed by the incubator Accelerator, which will announce the news today. Allozyne will rely on proprietary technology that uses non-natural amino acids to create new therapeutic proteins, said Datta, who earned her doctorate at Caltech.

If it works on a commercial scale, a protein-based drug could last longer, be less toxic, have fewer side effects or pack greater effectiveness than products that are sold now.

"This technology can potentially improve any protein therapeutic that is on the market, in clinical trials or in preclinical development," said Carl Weissman, president and chief executive of Accelerator.

The technology was discovered in the laboratories of Goddard and Tirrell. The company's name, said Datta, comes from combining the sounds from the words "alloproteins," which are proteins that contain non-natural amino acids, and "by design."

Accelerator's offer of $4 million to $5 million in Series A investment, guidance from its board and access to research opportunities at the Seattle-based multidisciplinary Institute for Systems Biology helped cap the deal.

"Everything put together, it seemed like the best thing that we could do for Allozyne was to bring it here," said Datta, who helped pioneer the technology at Caltech.

Accelerator leaders, who started talking with Datta about a company in January, also introduced her to Grabstein, who co-founded Corixa Corp. and served as immunology director at Immunex Corp.

"It's very exciting and powerful technology and certainly has a high likelihood of success, compared to much of the technology in the biotech field today," he said.

The opportunity to conduct research with human genomics pioneer Leroy Hood, ISB president and an Accelerator board member, was another factor that helped bring the technology to Seattle.

The company's backers know the market potential is vast if the technology succeeds commercially. "When you're talking about every single protein drug, you're talking about the 'b's' and not 'm's' anymore," said Weissman. "It's billions of dollars in potential."

But the most pressing goal in the near future is to conduct preclinical studies in animals.

"It's an academic technology. We still need to do more work," said Chad Waite, an Accelerator board member and general partner with OVP Venture Partners.

Waite heard about Datta from a friend last year and introduced her to the Accelerator board.

Weissman said the closest competitor is San Diego-based Ambrx Inc. He contends, however, that Allozyne has more current and patented research from Caltech.

"The biggest risk in a company that has this much potential is in focus," he said. "Pick the right project and stay focused and prosecute it to its conclusion."

P-I reporter Brad Wong can be reached at 206-448-8137 or bradwong@seattlepi.com.

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