Flagship Pioneering-backed Alltrna is once again laying off staff, this time reducing its workforce by 19 people.
The decision was made to “position Alltrna for success as we accelerate toward the clinic with our first engineered tRNA drug candidate,” a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech. After the layoffs, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company has 36 remaining staffers.
“Our mission to bring tRNA medicines to patients who need them and build the world’s first tRNA platform remains unchanged,” the spokesperson said—the same statement given to Fierce in August, when Alltrna laid off 10% of its team.
The preclinical company also restructured its team in December 2023 after closing a $109 million series B round that August.
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Flagship launched Alltrna in 2021 with $50 million. The biotech’s leadership team includes Taleen Afeyan, daughter of Flagship co-founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., as senior director of strategy and operations. The company is helmed by Michelle Werner, who also serves as a CEO partner at Flagship.
Alltrna’s focus is to target liver-related genetic diseases. The biotech did not respond to questions regarding the status of its efforts to enter the clinic.
The company’s most advanced asset targets Arg-TGA and is currently in investigational new drug-enabling studies, according to Alltrna’s website. Mutations of Arg-TGA can occur in genetic liver diseases such as phenylketonuria, organic acidemias and urea cycle disorders.
Alltrna’s overall strategy aims to address genetic conditions by targeting premature stop codons. When genes are transcribed to mRNA and used to make a protein, codons are the chunks of mRNA sequence that correspond to a given amino acid in the protein; a stop codon tells the cell that the protein is finished. Mutations in genes can cause stop codons to appear where they aren’t supposed to, cutting off the protein too early and disrupting its final function.
As a protein forms, tRNA molecules corresponding with codons are responsible for shuttling the correct amino acids to the construction site. Engineering tRNAs so that they recognize premature stop codons and bring in the correct amino acid instead could restore the healthy protein, according to Alltrna.
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When asked if recent FDA sentiments or changes surrounding genetic disease have impacted Alltrna, the biotech did not respond.
