Helping Patients With Purpose-Built Drugs With Todd Harris of Tyra Biosciences

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. You want tech and tacos? Tacos in tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keeper captains counting beans Contador quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a crappy and coffee my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos El gordo the taco standing puesto lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean Watch the sunset la Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana esti be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom, and I am thrilled to have you here on the Tacos and Tech podcast. We interview builders of technologies, of companies, of communities, and we do it weekly, so thanks for tuning in. Every Tuesday, new interview and on Fridays we talk about what's new in the San Diego tech ecosystem from a news perspective. So make sure you join us there as well too. We also have a tech newsletter that comes out every other week@freshbroodtech.com you can subscribe to listen to it without further ado. Enjoy this episode. I'm thrilled to be joined by Todd Harris, co founder and CEO of Tyro Biosciences. Hey, Todd, it's good to have you on the pod. Thanks for being here.

Hey, thanks, Neil. Pleasure to be here.

Yeah, absolutely. We've gotten to know each other a little bit from afar through some work in north county. And thanks for contributing to the content we've been doing for City of Carlsbad. But we're really excited to get to know a bit more of your story as well. You want to give us a quick overview of what Tyro Biosciences is?

Sure. So, Tyra Biosciences, we're a biotech company. We're focused on precision medicine in oncology and we actually make next generation drug candidates here in north county. And we do it on behalf of cancer patients. We're excited to Be moving into the clinic with our first drugs this year.

Awesome. We're super passionate about this space. Obviously it's hard to beat when you are literally creating life changing technology. So we're excited to hear what you're up to now. But take us back through here. Were you born and raised to do cancer drugs or how did you find your way into the biotech world?

Yeah, well, I was born and raised in Southern California. Grew up surfing the pristine beaches including down here in North County. And yeah, I have always had an interest in medicine and biology and science and so it was a natural fit for me to go in this direction even from a pretty, pretty young age.

Awesome. I think you ended up at UCSD at some point.

Yeah, I did a. I did an undergrad stint at BYU and then master's at UCSD and a PhD at MIT. So I got tons of exposure to great schools.

Yeah, definitely we would have potentially crossed paths at UCSD. I was there from 05 to 04 to 07 or eight doing mechanical engineering. So entirely possible we would have crossed paths there.

03 to 05. So like waving you in on as I was heading out.

Yeah, exactly. I know you. I lived in me in EBU too. And you probably lived in the next building next door, right?

I remember your building. Yeah, that new building that was just getting built. That really pretty new building.

So yep, I remember that as well. So have you been in San Diego ever since or have you kind of moved around a few different locations?

Did the stint in Boston for the PhD, started my career in New York at McKinsey, but then moved McKinsey, moved out, out to the. So in the California office with them while I was working. Spent a couple years up in San Clemente while I was still working for them and then came down and bought a house in Carlsbad that, you know, get the family situated here.

Very cool. Oh, so you've been in Carlsbad a while, it sounds like.

Yeah, 10 years.

Oh, wow, that's awesome. All right. Want to hear a little bit about how the community's grown? That's for sure. But where was your. I mean, you obviously studied, you know, bioengineering and the life sciences space. Is that where you knew professionally you were going to focus your time or when did you know that was a career path?

At a pretty young age, Even in high school, I looked at medicine and engineering as passion areas for me. I was pretty science minded and math and engineering minded and also really felt passionate about applying that, you know, for human unmet need as opposed to making the next computer program, so naturally went towards the biosciences.

Okay. And was how did you kind of dip your toes in that water profession? Were you already doing it with McKinsey?

Yeah. Well, so, you know, my science chops were really kind of coming out of my academic experience, so spent a lot of time in a lab during a PhD and really got excited about the science, but realized that I wasn't great, you know, pipetting with my hands on a lab bench and needed to kind of move outside of the lab on my next career move. McKinsey was an opportunity to reset a little bit and then get a broader perspective of biopharma biotech and how, you know, the full business model operates from commercialization of marketing all the way back into R and D prioritization and all the various decisions along the way. Got it.

And did you always have this inkling to start a company and be an entrepreneur or when did that itch? Because that's a big jump from working in the business versus, you know, starting and building the business.

Yeah, I think that itch was created during my time at McKinsey and realizing that I didn't feel like big pharma or big companies were an excellent fit for me. It was a little bit more, you know, wanted to explore a little bit more the creative side. And, you know, my dad was an entrepreneur. He was an artist in his academic undergraduate studies, but then kind of started a company in that space. So I think maybe it runs in the blood a little bit. I was entrepreneurial in the beginning.

Got it. So what was your first business idea that you worked on?

Yeah, so coming out of McKinsey, there was a project that turned into a company which was taking some of the work that I was associated with in my PhD, having an idea to which was in cancer and cancer research, but having an idea to reapply it into derm and aesthetics with a company called Sienna. And that turned into, you know, an idea and some IP and then a little bit of seed funding I was able to collect from some great mentors and investors here in the San Diego area that ultimately turned into some great opportunities. Company actually ended up going public. Before that, I had kind of handed off the reins to a management team that came in with our Series A. But I stayed involved, and it was really a great opportunity for me to see the full lifecycle of a company from, you know, starting it from scratch to through IPO and beyond. And there were a lot of great learnings there that fed into what we're doing here at Tyra. Oh, I bet.

For sure. Seeing all that, especially on your first go, you know, to take it public and to bring in a new management team, was it, I'm curious, as from an entrepreneur, was it hard to pass it off? Like was it felt like it was your baby, any of the people, or do you feel like, you know, these are, these were the pros?

You know, it was hard and there were some lessons there, but at the time, and I think ultimately it was the right decision and it did give me an opportunity to learn without being in the driver's seat, but just to have a lot of experiences, you know, in close proximity and so I don't regret any of that. Tyrant is really ultimately much closer to where my passion always has been in oncology. And so it gave me a great foundation for. For working with a great group of people on this company. Got it.

Okay. So our listeners are a mix of bio and tech. The bio world very much understands the IPO process just because it's just another step in the way of accessing capital. Whereas the tech world, it's almost like this 10, 15 year thing you hope to achieve to a major exit, you know, for a lot. So they're kind of different in that world. Take us through a little bit about how you envision ipo. We can use that, we can talk about that in the sense of Tyra if you want, either way. But what's that process been like from thinking, you know, from start to is this a milestone or is this the exit for you?

Yeah, I think you articulated it well that every industry is different in the way they think about their various stages of financing. And I'd say biotech, it's a very capital intensive business and, you know, we have to hit a lot of milestones and prove out a lot of the science on our path to getting an approved drug. When you do that, it becomes a very valuable asset because of all those regulatory protections on the way. And so the value proposition is different for investors and for people involved in this space. It's very capital intensive. You raise money and your currency tends to be your clinical data that you're able to generate with that money. And that obviously then either fosters additional investment, you know, at attractive valuations, or M and A, which also occurs in the space. So that's the way that the industry set up. As opposed to your point tech, where maybe it's more of a revenue or profit driven model. You know, it adds liquidity, but it doesn't fundamentally change the business or maybe it's a growth strategy for ipo, but it's still a revenue. So I think, I think investors in the biotech space have matured around this concept as well as operators. And we understand it. It's a really important step because you have to access a ton of capital and you can only access so much in private markets. So taking that step to IPO is important. And if you can do it, you know, it can be very enabling for a company because it creates further access to capital down the road. Once you've taken that step.

Totally. And for your employees too. Right. Theoretically, they've got a liquidity that is very different than people who have purely, you know, locked up stock options in that regard. Suit. So it becomes another recruiting tool, I would imagine.

Free, right? Yep, yep, absolutely. It's part of growing up as a company. It's an important step. We still have a lot of work to do for sure.

Well, we'll touch on that in a second. Take us through a little bit of the Tyra founding story. Like when did it come as an idea versus when you jumped on it all in full time?

Yeah. You know, a couple folks involved in co founding with any great, you know, venture. It's not a one man show by any means. My coo, Dan Benson, who's a resident here in Carlsbad, really started around conversations between us. I'd also include one of my long term mentors, Bob Moore at Alta Capital, who was also in the mix and just discussions around building something great. And we both came with different expertise and I think we aligned around this vision that, you know, largely in targeted oncology, that we could solve some of the unmet need that current generation drugs were facing or some of the liabilities that some of the current gen drugs had that we felt like start from scratch using structure based tools and a variety of kind of proprietary techniques we've built out here at Tyra to make better drugs. And that was we seeded the company, we explored ideas, we really kind of identified our lead target, which is a FGFR3 target that we're pursuing and then raise money around that subsequent, you know, we've been able to execute on that and now we actually do have that drug. We said we were going to make and move it into the clinic, which is great. But it really did just start out with that vision of, you know, we felt like there was a need to make something. It was something hard to make, but we felt like we had the expertise and could build the expertise in a company to do it.

Super cool. I think I remember a story around, I think you were incubated or at least in the biotech and beyond space. Is that true? Take us through a little bit of that experience. Tell us what biotech and beyond is and your experience. There's.

Yeah, so there's a few incubators in town. One is down in jlabs in San Diego. I spent a little time there and that's a good place. But up here in Carlsbad the options are pretty limited. But there is this biotech and beyond space which we did grab some space and started to do some of our early experiences, experiments and that was really when we were a seed company. And it's good to be able to have these adaptive cost effective models when you're still figuring out what you're going to do. And capital is tight. So we certainly leveraged it during that period of time.

Yeah, so in a sense it's kind of a built out almost like co working lab.

Right.

Where they've already got equipment that you can use and rent time on. Is that how it works?

Exactly right, yeah. Rent, rent a lab space, get some common equipment, tissue culture room, some of the key tools you need to do biotech work.

Super cool. Well yeah, it's a great resource. Especially entrepreneur who beginning stages they, you know, not want to invest in assets yet like that. That's for sure.

Yeah, that's exactly right. In the very beginning you want to spend as little bit of capital failing fast and making sure your idea and concept is really sound. So we take the big capital. You got a really strong alignment with your investors and you know, with what you know you can and need to execute on for sure.

So you're in the precision medicine space which is obviously booming in the whole world, but San Diego seems to know capturing a lot of that kind of precision area. You want to give us a little bit of an overview of just what's happening in the precision space, both San Diego and maybe even in Carlsbad, if you know of that of the scene around there as well too.

Yeah, I mean everything really. I. You got to point to the big company down in San Diego, Illumina and the next generation sequencing revolution which you know we Talked about this 20 years ago as the promise of what was going to come and quite literally it's here. There's a lot of work still to do but we're in a golden era of medicine where genetically we can define diseases, understand them, find patients, you know, with those aberrations and then work on A treatment. And in oncology specifically, every year we learn more and more that there are very specific characteristics of genes that can be targeted, you know, for a unique patient. And maybe it's one in a hundred patients that has that gene that is mutated. But in that instance, if you target it with the right drug, you could potentially stop the growth and have a huge impact on that one patient. And, and so with one in a hundred, you need a hundred companies or at least a hundred drugs to hit the need. And you know, 20 years ago you couldn't envision it because one, you didn't know what all these mutations were. Two, you had no way of finding a patient if you had it. And so the idea of kind of big studies where you use a general drug and try and you know, cure typically ended up maybe 5 to 10% of people benefited and the rest didn't. Now we're able to take a patient population and get 30, 40, 50, 60, in some cases, 80% of patients that are going to do well and respond right away to that drug. So it's a huge impact on a small patient population. It's all enabled by sequencing and that, you know, sequencing revolution and it's fun to be part of it. And there are a lot of companies because there are, have been identified a lot of opportunities and I think it's something to be applauded for human disease that so many people are working on so many opportunities because you never know when it might be you or someone you love that's ultimately impacted.

For sure. Yeah. And we love that. That's the underlying almost culture of San Diego.

Right.

We live in a great place where we are enjoying our life, but working on literally life changing technology. It's pretty special to be around. Do you feel that in Carlsbad? Like, do you feel that is what everyone's kind of working on of kind of these game changing technologies? Is it pervasive?

It is pervasive. And it's a very like I was having a conversation with a colleague today who's at another biotech company here in San Diego and we talked about how, you know, it's not, there's not a lot we don't think of other companies as competitive. It's a little bit different than other industries that way. Most of the companies, we think of them as peers, we root for their success. You know, there's a place for each of us to be playing here. And in most instances you sort of just applaud the industry and they're excited to see success happen.

Absolutely. So take us through a little bit of the lifecycle with Tyra. I know, especially during COVID running a biotech company, that, where it wasn't the number one imperative for the world. I don't know if that felt like, you know, you're playing second place when you weren't working on Covid. Also, like going public during the pandemic as well, like, what's that been like over the last two years or so?

I think, I think Covid taught us the importance of working hard on innovation in human disease. And so whether or not you were working on Covid or something else, I think all of us gained, you know, strong appreciation that, that we need technology and that technology can make a huge impact on human disease globally. You know, huge feat that was achieved with the MRNA vaccines and then ultimately now small molecule drugs, you know, and in just two years that can address and improve the outcomes of patients. And so it was fun to be part of that wave because quite honestly, I think we all saw a bump in enthusiasm, not just for Covid treatments, but for any treatment and recognizing the value that health, you know, and that improving health brings. I think the other unique piece of building a company in Covid is just like everyone else, we had to adapt and figure out how to do this virtually. We have a lot of things that happen in our lab that we needed to keep going. But the good news is for us, like, PPE is typically pretty standard in the lab, and it wasn't hard to mask up and kind of have the right protocols in place that allowed employees still to perform their function when they needed to be in a lab. But we built the company really with a global footprint in terms of team members and capabilities as a result. Because, you know, we didn't. We weren't focused at all on trying to recruit locally. We were trying to just recruit the best talent. We were all on Zoom anyways. And that's had a lot lasting implication on how we do business, because we have no intention of requiring kind of everyone to be at a single site. And we really plan to build the company the way that we've already built it so far, which is virtually leveraging modern Zoom techniques to all get our work done without having to co localize.

Oh, that's cool. I wouldn't hear that think that from biotech, but that's super cool to hear.

Yeah, of course. I mean, if we got lab work, that's here. You got to be here, you know, and I love being here on site with the lab, which we're in downtown Carlsbad on State Street. And it's a great site, but for many of the other functions that our lab require that, you know, there's no requirement to need to be here in person.

I love the idea of biotech in a downtown area, especially in Carlsbad. Right there, I think you guys are right there next to like Lofty Coffee. Right that right where you are over there.

Yeah, we're across street from June and Jolie. We're, you know, Campfire Lofty, all those good spots here on State.

Yeah, love that. And it's becoming a trend where biotech is coming out of the business parks and into the downtowns. I know downtown San Diego, it's coming all over. And now in downtown Carlsbad too, which really I think is more about being in a place where the whole team can enjoy the place that they work in.

Right. Yeah, no, it really is. I mean, it's. Yeah, you've got some great campuses cropping up all over. And yeah, we take advantage of, you know, State street isn't a huge street, our campus isn't gigantic, but we're also, you know, a pretty, you know, we're not a gigantic company either, but it's an exceptional place for people to work. Certainly. We all love it here.

Awesome. So take us through where you guys are at now and kind of where we should see you in a year from now or so so we can keep and keep tabs on where you're headed.

Yeah. So our big milestones really this year are achieving kind of the goals we set out with our Series A two years ago, which is we developed an FGFR3 Selective Inhibitor and that's going into the clinic. So we're going to be starting mid this year, we're going to file an IND and we're going to be starting treating patients. And then, you know, shortly thereafter in the second half of the year, we're going to Filan Ind for Tyra 200R FGFR2 targeted inhibitor. So again, these are examples when I say FGFR3 and FTFR, these are proteins, they're oncogenic drivers, they're identified with next generation sequencing, and they're unique to a small subset of patients that happen to have these mutations, fusions or other that are driving their cancer. And so that's where we're going to be taking these drugs into those patient populations that are genetically defined. Cool.

This is like where the rubber meets the road here.

Right?

This is where you get to see, see it in action. So it's pretty exciting. Maybe we'll have you on, you know, a year or two and kind of check in with you. Be pretty cool. You've purposely built a company and culture in Southern California which you grew up around, which means you intimately know the taco scene as well too. Gotta imagine you got a few favorites. Any. Anything you can share with the audience?

Yeah, you know, I'm gonna just go with the one which is a walk away from where I'm at right now. And that's pure taco. It's a new installation in State Street. Exceptional. Baja fish is out of this world. It's very good. Probably find myself there two to three times a week just walking up the street.

Lucky to have one in walking distance though. You know, there's always a taco spot in walking distance. It feels like in San Diego. So Pier is a good one. I think it's the first it's been mentioned on the podcast. We will add it to our taco database. A good mention there. But you mentioned you've surfed all over and so, you know, we all are very much a friend to either the taco or really the burrito post surf, which is like, like if you didn't have one after, did you really surf?

So that's where like Roberto's made its, you know, made its name, right, that post surf burrito.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Todd, this was, it was great to have you on. Appreciate not just you telling your story, but just obviously the mission you're on to go and take technology and improve human life. So thanks for that and I know you don't take it lightly. For sure though. It feels like, you know, just what something you do every other day. But appreciate it. Best of luck and thanks for being on the podcast.

Thanks for having me, Neil.

Cheers.

Cheers.

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