Backed by big-name investors, well-known executives and millions of dollars, a freshly launched biotechnology company hopes to turn research from a California lab into new cancer therapies.
Named TORL BioTherapeutics, the company is built around discoveries from the lab of its scientific cofounder, Dennis Slamon, who is currently chief of hematology and oncology in the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Medicine. Previously, Slamon helped identify a key protein, “HER2,” involved in some breast cancers. His team was then integral to the clinical research that led to groundbreaking medicine Herceptin.
