Seattle biotech startup Talus Bio awarded $4.3 to fight cancer

Talus Bioscience, a Seattle-based biotech, received $4.3 million from the Washington Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment Fund and the National Institutes of Health. The grant funding will be used to support Talus’ research of rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroblastoma, two cancers that commonly affect children.
“We’re expecting to find interesting molecules for more than just this cancer,” said Alex Federation, co-founder and CEO of Talus. “We’re starting with these focused problems, but the applications as we dive deeper and get further along could be pretty massive.”
Talus, which is made up of 16 Seattle-based employees, is focused on developing drugs to prohibit transcription factors – proteins in the body – from transforming normal cells into cancer cells. The company is a spin-off from the University of Washington and the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences.
To date, Talus has received over $15 million in grant and venture funding.