Recognition & Awards

Revolution Medicines is currently located in the EnterpriseWorks incubator at the University of Illinois Research Park. San Francisco/Redwood City, Calif. – February 4, 2015 – Third Rock Ventures, LLC today announced the formation of REVOLUTION Medicines, Inc. with a $45 million Series A financing to discover and develop new therapies derived from natural products. REVOLUTION Medicines’ innovative approach reconfigures these complex chemicals of life into best-in-class medicines. Veteran industry leader Mark A. Goldsmith, M.D., Ph.D., is the founding president and chief executive officer of REVOLUTION Medicines. Dr. Goldsmith brings to the company more than 25 years of experience as an academic scientist and senior executive in the biotechnology industry, and is a partner at Third Rock Ventures. REVOLUTION Medicines builds upon the vision of the company’s founder and scientific advisory board chairman, Martin D. Burke, M.D., Ph.D., professor of chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Burke invented a transformative method for synthesizing original compounds that are pharmaceutically optimized analogues of complex natural products. The company has entered into an exclusive license agreement with the University of Illinois to practice and expand this technology, and is pursuing a rapid clinical development path with its lead antifungal program that originated in Dr. Burke’s laboratory. “With this major advance in chemical synthesis, we now have the opportunity to unlock the full medical benefits of natural products that have been selected through a billion years of evolutionary pressure,” said Dr. Goldsmith. “Marty is a remarkably inventive chemical biologist, and REVOLUTION Medicines is working closely with him in his role as scientific advisory board chairman to exploit his breakthroughs for industrial-scale drug discovery through redesigning complex molecules. Our strategy should produce high-impact treatments for serious infections and non-infectious diseases, among them our lead product candidates for patients with life-threatening fungal infections.” The arduous process of synthesizing natural products often requires years of trial and error to reconstruct a single chemical scaffold. In contrast, REVOLUTION Medicines’ approach is a rapid, standardized and powerful process for assembling simple “chemical building blocks” into refined natural product-like structures. These optimized compounds have significant potential as best-in-class drug candidates. REVOLUTION Medicines’ first drug candidates exploit and improve upon the properties of amphotericin B, a powerful, broad-spectrum antifungal compound found in nature that has avoided generating significant drug resistance in 50 years of clinical use. Full therapeutic benefit from this highly efficacious natural compound is significantly compromised by inherent dose-limiting side effects, principally kidney damage. Using the building block synthesis platform to create new molecules, Dr. Burke and his research group overturned decades of scientific dogma and demonstrated that the antifungal efficacy of the amphotericin B scaffold can be separated chemically from the major mechanism that underlies human kidney cell damage. REVOLUTION Medicines is developing novel compounds that leverage the proven therapeutic mechanism for killing fungi while minimizing toxic effects on human cells. “Professor Burke and his group have demonstrated the power of research at our school to uncover methods and drug candidates that can be enormously impactful on human health,” said Phyllis Wise, Ph.D., chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “As one of the nation’s original land-grant institutions, our mission at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is to serve the public good through learning, discovery and outreach. Third Rock Ventures has launched REVOLUTION Medicines to translate these discoveries into important human benefits.” REVOLUTION Medicines Team The REVOLUTION Medicines team brings deep expertise and a track record of building exceptional life sciences companies. In addition to Dr. Goldsmith, founding president and chief executive officer and Dr. Burke, founder and scientific advisory board chairman, the team includes: David Pompliano, Ph.D., founding chief scientific officer, who is a leading drug discovery and development expert who previously led infectious disease research at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline; Peg Horn, J.D., general counsel and senior vice president, corporate development, a seasoned corporate executive with extensive experience in small and large companies; Neil Exter, interim chief business officer, a member of REVOLUTION Medicine’s board of directors and partner at Third Rock Ventures, who brings more than 20 years of experience leading business development and strategy, including service as chief business officer of bluebird bio (NASDAQ: BLUE) and Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ: FMI); and Alexis Borisy, a member of REVOLUTION Medicines board of directors, partner at Third Rock Ventures, and entrepreneur and chemical biologist who brings more than 20 years of experience launching and operating innovative science-based organizations, including Blueprint Medicines, Warp Drive Bio, Foundation Medicine and CombinatoRx.

CHAMPAIGN, IL, Sept. 26, 2014 — Rithmio has just announced that they have reached their fundraising goal of $650,000 that will enable them to build and release the first gesture recognition platform.  Rithmio’s software will help brands integrate gesture recognition into wearables and smartphones. Funding was led by Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes, with BonaVentura, Fox Ventures, Illinois Ventures, Techra Investments, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Serra Ventures. Rithmio will use the funds to accelerate the development of their current product, expand the team with additional developers and implement marketing plans. Read the full Tech Crunch article.

CHAMPAIGN, IL, Aug. 4, 2014  — A $1.5-million grant will enable IntelliWheels, Inc. to advance development of ultra-lightweight, multi-geared wheels for manual wheelchairs. This new innovation will further wheelchair functionality, allowing manual wheelchair users to be more physically active and increase their independence, health and well-being. IntelliWheels received the Phase II SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. “By using simple gearing we can create a more dynamic method of mobility, providing wheelchair users greater ability to interact in their environment,” said Marissa Siero, Co-Founder of IntelliWheels, Inc. The IntelliWheels i series will give wheelchair users the option to shift into high and low gears, providing the ability to independently maneuver hills, uneven surfaces and longer distances. IntelliWheels, Inc. will be working in collaboration with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, and TiLite, a leading manufacturer of ultralight wheelchairs to conduct research on geared technology for wheelchair users as well as product development. “Funding like this from the NIH is an incredible tool to help designers, engineers, and inventors create the very best technology and design that every wheelchair user deserves.  It has an additional benefit that it supports US manufacturing and small businesses,” said Scott Daigle, M.S., PI and President, Co-Founder of IntelliWheels, Inc. About IntelliWheels IntelliWheels, Inc. is a product development company dedicated to innovating wheelchair technology and improving mobility options for wheelchair users. Utilizing wheelchair users’ feedback in the design process and product development phases enables IntelliWheels to create products for wheelchair users with optimal features and greater functionality. IntelliWheels believes in creating innovative products that can be used to increase a person’s ability to lead a more active and independent life.  IntelliWheels originated as a student startup from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Intelliwheels recognized by: HME News, FinSMEs, BioSpace, News Gazette

EP Purification captured the $100,000 Wells Fargo Grand Prize for Clean Energy Entrepreneurship at the 2014 Clean Energy Trust Challenge on April 3. The EnterpriseWorks-based startup is devoted to the manufacturing of novel systems for the purification of water and air, based on microplasma technology developed at and licensed from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The company is led by Sung-Jin Park and Gary Eden, both University of Illinois engineering faculty. The Clean Energy Challenge is one of the nation’s most important clean energy business events. Finalists from the past three Challenge events have raised more than $40 million in outside investment, created 280 jobs and registered 40 patents and disclosures. Press coverage of the Clean Energy Trust Challenge: Crain’s Chicago Business :