Ternary Therapeutics, a London-based biotechnology startup developing molecular glue medicines, has raised £3.6 million in a seed round led by daphni, with participation from Pace Ventures, the i&i Biotech Fund and the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund.
Founded in November 2024, TernaryTx is developing a platform that combines machine learning, physics-based molecular modelling and rapid laboratory testing to design molecular glues – drugs capable of targeting proteins long considered undruggable. The approach seeks to make discovery repeatable rather than relying on chance, which has historically driven the identification of many molecular glues.
Its models predict how proteins behave and propose molecules that could bring them together. Scientists then test those molecules in the laboratory and feed the results back into the system so the next round of designs becomes progressively more accurate.
The company has already generated a pipeline of preclinical programmes focused on inflammatory and neuroinflammatory diseases and has secured early research collaborations with pharmaceutical and specialist biotechnology partners.
The funding will be used to expand Ternary Therapeutics’ computational and laboratory teams and advance lead programmes towards preclinical development.
A large proportion of disease-driving proteins lack obvious drug-binding sites, limiting the reach of traditional medicines. Molecular glues create new interactions between proteins, which could significantly expand the number of druggable targets if designed reliably.
Molecular glues have delivered some of the most exciting breakthroughs in drug discovery over the past decade, but historically they’ve been discovered largely by chance rather than through a systematic process. Our platform is designed to change that by combining physics-informed AI with rapid experimental validation to engineer these molecules intentionally and at scale. That allows us to approach drug discovery more like an engineering problem than a process of trial and error. This investment enables us to expand the platform, grow our team and accelerate programmes towards the clinic, while building the foundations for long-term partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
Designing molecular glues predictably is one of the hardest problems in drug discovery. Ternary has built a disciplined platform that integrates machine learning, physics and experimental biology to tackle that challenge.
Ternary’s approach to drug design is enabled by its compute power. The combination of expanding knowledge of biology and recent developments in AI allow it to understand massive complexity and the resulting molecular glue drug candidates target areas that have historically been considered out of reach. This is a world class example of huge ambition with significant potential for patient benefit that UKI2S is delighted to back.
