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A King of Prussia-based team is taking on one of the biggest challenges in medicine: how to treat diseases caused by proteins that current drugs can’t touch.
SEED Therapeutics grew out of an idea that began at the University of Washington. CEO Lan Huang and her collaborators aimed their research at the nearly 80% of cell proteins, including some that cause cancer, not yet treatable by existing drugs. SEED, founded in 2020, designs “molecular glues” that harness the same cellular process to break down the harmful proteins that drive cancer and other diseases.
To put it simply, molecular glues are small drug molecules that stick a disease-causing protein to the cell’s natural trash-disposal machinery. Once stuck, the harmful protein gets tagged for destruction and broken down, which, optimally, will leave the cell disease-free.
“We use this molecule group, which doesn’t exist in nature, and we develop it,” Huang told Technical.ly.
If the science of the approach, called targeted protein degradation, holds, the company’s first-in-human trial for Ewing sarcoma could signal a new wave of therapies for cancers and other diseases long considered out of reach.
“Doing this from scratch has never been done before, so it’s a difficult process,” James Tonra, president and chief scientific officer of SEED, told Technical.ly.
The FDA has cleared SEED for testing its degrader in patients, the company has partnerships with Eli Lilly and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and it has been named a finalist for the 2025 Prix Galien USA “Best Startup” Award.
A booming biotech corridor
In 2004, biochemist and SEED cofounder Avram Hershko was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for revealing ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, the cell’s natural process for tagging and discarding worn-out proteins.
After developing the initial platform in 2020, Tonra said, Eli Lilly took notice, and its investment and collaboration helped establish SEED as its own company. Ning Zheng, a University of Washington professor who coined the term “molecular glue,” and Michele Pagano, a New York University Medical School professor and longtime expert in protein biology, round out the four cofounders.
The Philadelphia area was chosen for the startup’s HQ because of its proximity to the University of Pennsylvania, where SEED does work in research and collaboration. Hershko has also done a significant amount of work with Fox Chase Cancer Center.
As the company set up in the former GSK R&D headquarters in King of Prussia in 2022, there were doubts from some in the industry that it would be able to find the talent it needed in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Those doubters were proven wrong — within a month and a half, they successfully met their hiring target of four new team members.
“We’ve hired great people that are really contributing to our success,” Tonra said. “This corridor from Philadelphia to Doylestown is booming with biotech.”
From concept to patients
With the way cleared to begin testing in patients, SEED’s lead target is Ewing sarcoma, a rare cancer that mainly affects adolescents and young adults and hasn’t had a new approved treatment in three decades.
The FDA has granted the program “rare pediatric” and “orphan drug” status, which, Tonra said, gives SEED regulatory advantages and potential funding incentives.
Beyond Ewing sarcoma, SEED is also exploring treatments for liver cancer, KRS mutant cancers and endometrial cancer. In the next five years, it expects to advance multiple drug candidates into clinical testing.
“The goal is to have patients as our North Star,” said Huang, “to give them new hope, and restore their health.”
