Alltrna, the preclinical Flagship Pioneering-backed biotech trying to turn transfer RNA (tRNA) into drugs, is slimming down as it works toward the clinic.
The Massachusetts-based outfit has laid off eight employees, a 12% reduction that leaves 58 staffers still employed, a company spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech.
“Our strategy and vision remain unchanged as we advance toward the clinic with our first engineered tRNA therapeutic,” the spokesperson said.
The company also “completed a small restructuring” in December 2023, the spokesperson added, just a few months after closing a $109 million series B round that August.
Flagship launched Alltrna in 2021 with $50 million, and the company's leadership team includes Taleen Afeyan, daughter of Flagship co-founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., as senior director of strategy and operations.
So far, the biotech’s focus—all still in the preclinical stage—is to target liver-related genetic diseases like phenylketonuria, organic acidemias and urea cycle disorders.
Alltrna is taking a big swing to address genetic diseases by targeting premature stop codons. In the process of genes being transcribed to mRNA and then used to make a protein, codons are the chunks of mRNA sequence that correspond to a given amino acid in the protein; a stop codon tells the cell that the protein is finished. Mutations in genes can cause stop codons to appear where they aren’t supposed to in the sequence, cutting off the protein too early and disrupting its final function.
As a protein is being made, tRNA molecules that correspond to codons are responsible for shuttling the correct amino acids to the construction site. Engineering tRNAs so that they recognize premature stop codons and bring in the correct amino acid instead could restore the healthy protein, according to Alltrna.
“For the first time, we have the opportunity to universally treat stop codon disease, which encompasses thousands of rare and common human diseases,” CEO Michelle Werner told Fierce in August 2023. “Alltrna’s platform optimizes tRNA nucleotide sequence and modifications to turn tRNA’s sophisticated biology into programmable medicines with powerful potential therapeutic properties.”
Another Flagship company focusing on programmable RNA, Sail Therapeutics, also recently laid off staff, sending about 36 employees packing in July. That layoff round was Sail’s second within a year.
And fellow tRNA company HC Bioscience went a step further in May, closing its doors after a hemophilia A asset failed to deliver in preclinical tests.