Arrakis has gone through many significant transitions since its founding in 2015. We’ve evolved and matured scientifically. We’ve added investors and partners. And, of course, people come and go. Today, we reach a bittersweet transition at Arrakis. We bid our head of research and employee #005, Jim Barsoum, au revoir, as he marches bravely into […]
It is an axiom of effective navigation, on earth or water or in interstellar space, that you need a fixed point to guide you. A beacon that shines clearly, never changes, never moves. If you drift off course, it pulls you back, keeps you on track. Locking your eyes on the pole star is critically […]
When last we spoke (here and here), Arrakis had just achieved liftoff with a $38M Series A financing in February 2017, and we were awash in fascinating and, in some cases, vexing questions. Two of my own questions that stand out upon rereading those posts from two years ago are: Is medicinal chemistry truly limited […]
Earlier this spring, Russ Petter – our Founder and CSO, very much the heart and soul of Arrakis, and a guy I’ve known for nearly twenty years – told me he had something he wanted to talk to me about and how about we do it over dinner. I didn’t think twice about it at […]
So here we are. Nearly two years in the making, much of it focused, fastidious work by founder Jennifer Petter (of whom much more below), capped by an exhilarating and exhausting sprint to the finish by an outstanding team, Arrakis Therapeutics has now lifted off. Today we announced a $38M Series A financing led by […]
Most old-timers in drug discovery will agree on one thing: It never gets easier. Sure, maybe we learn a little from our mistakes along the way and the toolkit gets steadily flashier. But the easy targets, if ever they were truly easy ones, are long gone. We are left with either inscrutable biology or, even […]
