Kills cancer stem cells
Removes the source of relapse and resistance
Eliminating cancer cells that survive current therapies
New medicines that kill therapy-resistant cancer cells and restore immune defenses.
Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy can shrink tumors, but often leave behind therapy-resistant cancer cells and cancer stem cells. These survivors mutate, regrow tumors, and seed metastases. Loopwright has found a new vulnerability in these cells. In preclinical studies, our proprietary candidates use a novel mechanism to kill cancer cells and cancer stem cells, drive tumor regression, inhibit metastasis, and reactivate immune cells in primary and metastatic tumors. Because it does not depend on a single mutation or antigen, tumors cannot easily evade it, and it applies across multiple solid tumor types. Our candidates build on molecules with extensive real-world use, enabling a faster path to the clinic. The same biology also drives neurodegenerative, hematologic, and infectious disease. Loopwright is a seed-stage company in stealth mode.
Mission
Restoring the immune defenses that weaken with age
Our mission is to restore the innate and adaptive immunity that declines with age. We are developing small-molecule and immunotherapy programs for relapsed cancers and age-related diseases rooted in failing cellular repair and immune defense.
01 · Science
Why cancer comes back, and how we stop it
Standard therapies kill the bulk of a tumor but leave behind cancer stem cells. These cells resist treatment, evade the immune system, and regrow the tumor after therapy ends.
Loopwright has identified a new pathway that tumor cells and cancer stem cells need to survive. Our drugs target this dependency, eliminating cells that standard therapies miss. As tumors respond, the immune system re-engages and can attack the tumor.
One mechanism, four effects
Drives tumor regression
Shrinks established tumors
Inhibits metastasis
Limits spread to distant sites
Reactivates immunity
Restores immune cell activity within the tumor
Because this pathway does not depend on a specific mutation or surface antigen, the mechanism applies across tumor types and genetic backgrounds.
02 · Focus areas
Cancer first.
A platform that reaches further.
- 01Oncology (lead focus)Treatment-resistant and metastatic tumors, where cancer stem cells drive relapse and current therapies fall short.
- 02NeurodegenerationProgressive neuronal decline driven by cellular stress and genomic instability.
- 03Hematology and infectionClotting and host-defense disorders driven by oxidative vessel injury and overactive or exhausted immune responses.
03 · Programs
Loopwright is advancing small-molecule and immunotherapy programs, led by oncology, with additional programs in neurodegeneration, hematologic, and infectious diseases. Details are available to prospective partners and investors under confidentiality.
04 · Leadership
Anne K. Vallerga, MA, PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Anne has more than 30 years of experience in drug, device, and diagnostic development, licensing, and corporate strategy, across more than $490 million in transactions. As Vice President, External Affairs at DiaCarta, she built the alliances behind global launches of oncology and infectious disease diagnostics. She co-founded Colby Pharmaceutical, serving as Board Director and EVP, and led its in-licensing of MannKind's immunotherapy platform. Anne earned an M.A. in endocrinology and a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology/endocrinology from UC Berkeley and completed postdoctoral training in pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF in hematology/oncology. She holds an M.B.A. in healthcare leadership, with honors, from Dominican University of California and completed the Global BioExecutive Program at UC Berkeley Haas.
David A. Zarling, MA, PhD, MBA
Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder
David has more than 35 years of experience turning discoveries in genomic stability, immunology, and oxidative stress into therapeutics and diagnostics. As co-founder and CEO of Colby Pharmaceutical, he advanced small-molecule and immunotherapy programs, including a $283 million portfolio of intralymph node cancer immunotherapies and cell therapies acquired from MannKind. Earlier, he co-founded Pangene Corporation, an SRI International spin-out that commercialized homologous recombination and gene-editing technologies through a DuPont-Pioneer alliance. At SRI, he led a $90 million DARPA alliance for toxin- and pathogen-detection diagnostics and invented its ultrasensitive upconverting phosphor technology, licensed to OraSure Technologies and used in Department of Defense biothreat sensors and currency authentication. He began studying genomic instability as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and later directed research at the U.S. Naval Biosciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. He is an inventor on 46 U.S. and international patents and an author of 55 peer-reviewed papers. He holds a PhD in biochemical virology from Baylor College of Medicine, an MA in molecular biology from Dartmouth College, and an executive MBA from Pepperdine University.
Laird Q. Cagan, MS, MBA
Chief Financial Officer
Laird is Founder and Managing Partner of Cagan McAfee Capital Partners (CMCP), a Silicon Valley investment holding company he founded in 1990. Over the past 30 years he has been an investor, founder, board member, or CEO of more than 50 high-growth companies, including in medtech and healthcare. More than $3 billion has been invested in them, and he has taken more than 10 public. He began his career in M&A at Goldman Sachs and Drexel Burnham Lambert, advising on more than 30 transactions worth over $15 billion. He holds BS, MS, and MBA degrees from Stanford University.