Living Our Core Values - Pioneer: Breaking new ground with a powerful new modality

In my two years at Kymera Therapeutics , I’ve felt fortunate to work with colleagues who are motivated by the opportunity to break new ground in drug discovery and development, advancing the science of targeted protein degradation (TPD) and progressing our first-in-class clinical programs to solve problems that traditional medicines cannot address. Through our tremendous growth and evolution, our founding philosophy remains unchanged: harness the powerful potential of TPD to create a revolutionary generation of medicines that can improve patients’ lives. Our shared core values and a deep commitment to this work drive us. And today, as part of our annual culture week celebration, we recognize the opportunity, and responsibility, to #pioneer this technology, to address clinical problems where other modalities have failed, and work together to reinvent the way we treat disease.

Despite rapid advances in our understanding of human biology, conventional medicines are still only able to target 20 percent of the human proteome, meaning that the vast majority of disease-causing proteins aren’t currently drugged. Kymera is using small molecules to engage the body’s natural cellular recycling system and eliminate these proteins, which allow for much more flexibility and opportunity than traditional medicines. Understanding the vast potential of TPD to expand the universe of targets and be applied to almost any disease, we pioneered unique approaches and built critical capabilities that have enabled us to lead innovation in this field. This work has led us to pursue proteins that cannot be adequately addressed by current medicines, giving us a tremendous opportunity to transform disease treatment.

As Kymera’s Head of Research, I’ve already had a number of “rocking chair” moments here, times where we’ve made discoveries and achieved industry “firsts” that I look forward to sharing with younger scientists when I reflect on my career. These include demonstrating the first clinical evidence of biological and clinical differentiation from traditional small molecule medicines with our IRAK4 program, which was also the first degrader to demonstrate clinical activity in complex immunological diseases (hidradenitis suppurativa and atopic dermatitis). Kymera also initiated the first clinical testing of a degrader against an undrugged transcription factor (proteins that control gene expression) with our STAT3 program, and has the first degrader for MDM2 (a modulator of p53) which, because of its pharmacology, is differentiated biologically from small molecule inhibitors.

Looking ahead, I’m excited for our team to continue to push the science of TPD forward, to take degraders into new disease areas that need better treatments, and to build off of our work and pioneer new technologies like our novel molecular glues, which offer the opportunity to further expand the possibility of medicine. While I feel very fortunate to work with brilliant scientists every day in pursuing these challenges, I know it is our shared motivation, and culture, that will enable us to achieve them.