Peter Thompson, Terremoto Biosciences interim CEO

For­mer Prin­cip­ia team looks to shake up co­va­lent small mol­e­cules again, this time at 'earthquake' scale

Ter­re­mo­to Bio­sciences goes back a long ways, in a sense, to about a dozen years ago when Prin­cip­ia Bio­phar­ma was found­ed by UCSF pro­fes­sor Jack Taunton. Pe­ter Thomp­son ini­tial­ly helmed the biotech.

The com­pa­ny helped ex­pand co­va­lent small mol­e­cule in­hibitors be­yond on­col­o­gy and in­to au­toim­mune dis­ease by tar­get­ing cys­tine. But that amino acid is un­com­mon in a lot of pro­teins, of­fer­ing few­er drug tar­gets than, say, ly­sine, which is present in most pro­teins of in­ter­est. So, over the years, Taunton went back to the draw­ing board to check out that sec­ond amino acid.

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