
Enhanced pairing. Unlocking potential.
We are a proximity-based therapeutics company with expertise across bifunctional platforms, including PROTAC, tPRIME™, and PHICS™. Our platforms create chimeric small molecules that induce proximity between a target biomolecule of interest, e.g., a protein associated with disease, and an effector biomolecule, such as a ligase, a transcriptional regulator, or a kinase. Our proximity-induced approaches can selectively modulate otherwise “undruggable” target biomolecules to achieve a desired alteration of a target’s biologic function, which may be applied in a tissue-selective or cell compartment-selective manner depending on the platform employed. We are applying our deep chemistry and computational expertise across these platforms to advance a best-in-class pipeline of medicines for oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and cardiometabolic diseases.
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Photys was co-founded by the Broad Institute’s leading bifunctional chemist, Amit Choudhary, and the Longwood Fund, alongside a scientific advisory board comprised of distinguished scientists and drug developers – Wendy Young, GV Advisor, Angela Koehler, MIT Associate Professor of Biological Engineering, Tony Hunter, Salk Institute Professor, Dan Nomura, UC Berkeley Professor of Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics, and Eric Fischer, Independent Investigator Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
PLATFORMS
PROTAC: Target Protein Degrader
PROTAC (PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimera): A bifunctional small molecule that enhances pairing of specific ligases, such as an E3 ligase, with a specific target protein to degrade the target protein through ubiquitination. This process removes the protein from the cell to address disease associated with the presence or overactivity of that protein.

tPRIME: Target Protein Transcriptional Regulator
tPRIME (targeted-PRoximity-Induced Modulator of Expression): A bifunctional small molecule that enhances the pairing of a specific transcriptional regulatory proteins with a specific target to prime the DNA for transcription and enhance the activity of the target protein.

PHICS: Target Protein Phosphorylator
PHICS (PHosphorylation-Inducing Chimeric Small molecules): A bifunctional small molecule that enhances the pairing of specific kinases, the enzymes responsible for protein phosphorylation, with a specific target protein. PHICS can induce precise and reproducible phosphorylation of a given amino acid, which can recapitulate or amplify the biology associated with that phosphorylation, such as activation, degradation via phosphodegrons, stabilization, or translocation.
