{"entity":{"id":"enzyme-by-design","kind":"company","name":"Enzyme By Design","aka":["Enzyme By Design, Inc.","ENZYME BY DESIGN, INC."],"tldr":"Enzyme By Design is engineering a safer version of asparaginase, an enzyme medicine used against childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, to remove a second activity linked to side effects. It is in laboratory testing.","summary":"Enzyme By Design uses structure-based enzyme engineering to make cancer therapeutics safer, beginning with L-asparaginases, which it engineers to remove the side activity linked to toxicity. Its stated targets are haematological cancers, with possible use in some solid tumours. The NIH RePORTER abstract describes human-like asparaginases with reduced immunogenicity, no L-glutaminase activity and long persistence. In fiscal year 2026 NCI awarded it USD 400,000 under SBIR award 1R43CA306391-01A1.","asOf":"2026-11-04","links":[{"label":"Official website","url":"https://www.enzymebydesign.com/"},{"label":"NIH RePORTER: SBIR award 1R43CA306391-01A1","url":"https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11405207"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["chemotherapy"],"technologies":["metabolic-therapy"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["No named product on the company website. Read on enzymebydesign.com and NIH RePORTER on 4 November 2026."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"OnCo startup monitors","editedOn":"2026-11-04"},"hq":"Chicago, IL","country":"US","companyType":"biotech","website":"https://www.enzymebydesign.com/","stage":"startup","investors":[],"funding":[{"round":"Grant","year":2026,"amountUsd":400000,"source":"https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11405207","note":"NCI SBIR award (R43) 1R43CA306391-01A1: Validating the reduced immunogenicity of novel human-like asparaginases to de-risk clinical development"}]},"route":"/companies/enzyme-by-design/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"chemotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Chemotherapy","route":"/fronts/chemotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"metabolic-therapy","kind":"technology","name":"Metabolic therapy: starving the tumour of a nutrient","route":"/technologies/metabolic-therapy/"}]}}