Endura
Founded 2024 · 8 employees on LinkedIn · 3 known investors
EnduraTx develops small-molecule medicines that form permanent covalent bonds with disease-causing RNA to block production of proteins that cannot be drugged at the protein level, targeting conditions such as certain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Its TRANSCEND platform uses next-generation sequencing to map drug-RNA interactions at single-nucleotide resolution across many RNA targets simultaneously.
Also known as Endura Therapeutics · Endura Therapeutics, Inc. · EnduraTx
Investors · 3
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Endura Therapeutics is a preclinical biotechnology company developing small-molecule medicines that target RNA rather than proteins. Its approach, which the company calls Enduring Chemistry, is designed so that a small molecule first binds an RNA target and then forms a permanent covalent bond with it; the resulting chemical modification blocks production of the disease-causing protein. The company states that requiring both binding and bonding steps improves selectivity relative to binding alone.
The company targets disease classes it describes as inaccessible at the protein level: disordered proteins lacking druggable pockets (citing STAT3 in multiple cancers), closely related paralogous proteins that are difficult to distinguish (citing SMARCA2/4 in lung cancer), and gene-driven pathologies where there is no protein to drug (citing repeat expansions in neurodegeneration).
Endura describes its work as chemo-genomics, combining covalent chemistry with next-generation sequencing. Its TRANSCEND platform tests a drug candidate against many RNA targets simultaneously inside cells, encodes RNA-binding events as mutations that can be read out by sequencing, and produces interaction maps at single-nucleotide resolution across the target-ome. Third-party classification also associates the company with AI-driven drug discovery.
Founding story
Endura Therapeutics was founded in 2024 by CEO Adrian Sanborn, PhD, a founding member of Atomic AI who built its bioscience and drug discovery R&D and whose Stanford PhD work in AI and genomics received press coverage, and by Ayah Abdeldayem, PhD, Head of Chemistry, who established the covalent chemistry underpinning Dunad Therapeutics during her PhD at the University of Toronto and later worked on RNA-targeting drugs as a postdoc with Matt Disney and at Atomic AI. Jeff Rogers, PhD, serves as CSO, bringing nearly three decades in RNA biology including RNA-targeting small molecule leadership at Novartis's RNA Initiative and at a Flagship-founded biotech.
Business model
Endura Therapeutics operates as a preclinical drug discovery company, developing its own RNA-targeting small-molecule programs on an internal platform. Third-party profiling classifies it as B2B with a customer profile spanning government contracts and services/consulting, consistent with its participation in Small Business Innovation Research-type federal funding.
No revenue model is disclosed; the company is preclinical and financed through seed venture investment and National Science Foundation grant funding.
Traction
Founded 2024; seed round closed September 2024 with Calm Ventures, SciFounders, Scribble Ventures and the National Science Foundation participating, followed by a $303,000 NSF grant in May 2025. The company remains private and preclinical.
Latest developments
The most recent recorded financing activity is a $303,000 National Science Foundation grant dated May 15, 2025. The company's website, dated 2026, describes the TRANSCEND platform, three application areas (STAT3-driven cancers, SMARCA2/4 lung cancer, and repeat-expansion neurodegeneration), and a team and scientific advisory board including Dan Nomura, Patrick Gunning and Nobel laureate Roger Kornberg.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Endura is an early-stage, seed-stage preclinical company in the RNA-targeting small molecule field. Private-market data lists ReviR Therapeutics, Wayfinder Biosciences and Atomic AI as its closest comparables. The company states it is supported by investors that previously backed Enveda, Basecamp Research, Mammoth, Vir, Octant and Altos Labs.
Endura positions covalent, permanent bond formation with RNA as the differentiating mechanism, arguing that selectivity arises from a two-step requirement of binding followed by bonding. The TRANSCEND readout converts binding events into sequencing-detectable mutations, which the company presents as enabling parallel, quantitative, single-nucleotide-resolution measurement of drug-RNA interaction across many targets rather than one target at a time.
Technology
Enduring Chemistry uses small molecules that bind an RNA target and then form a permanent covalent bond, leaving a selective chemical modification that blocks translation of the disease-causing protein. The TRANSCEND platform screens each drug against many cellular RNAs at once, encoding binding events as mutations detectable by next-generation sequencing to generate single-nucleotide-resolution interaction maps across the target-ome. The company also associates itself with AI expertise alongside RNA biology and covalent chemistry.
Go-to-market
The company's public presence is oriented toward scientific communication and recruiting, publishing news and insight posts on its platform and rationale, and inviting direct contact. Non-dilutive federal grant funding from the National Science Foundation supplements venture capital in financing its preclinical work.
Therapeutic focus is on diseases considered undruggable at the protein level, including cancers driven by disordered proteins such as STAT3, lung cancers involving the SMARCA2/4 paralog pair, and repeat-expansion neurodegenerative disorders.
Geography
United States. The company states it is based in the biotech hubs of San Francisco and San Diego, California; private-market records list its headquarters as South San Francisco, California.
History
The company was founded in 2024 and raised seed capital in September of that year from Calm Ventures, SciFounders, Scribble Ventures and the National Science Foundation. In May 2025 it received a $303,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. As of 2026 it presents itself publicly as "the RNA covalency company," operating from San Francisco and San Diego, California, with South San Francisco listed as its headquarters in private-market records.
Risks & controversies
As a 2024-founded, seed-stage preclinical biotechnology company, Endura has no disclosed clinical-stage assets, partnerships or product revenue, and its covalent RNA-targeting approach remains unvalidated in humans.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsReceived a $303,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, recorded as the company's most recent funding activity.
$303K source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Enduraenduratx.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Endura do?
- RNA-targeting biotech developing covalent small molecules and a sequencing-based chemo-genomics platform, TRANSCEND.
- Who are Endura's investors?
- Endura's investors include Moxxie Ventures, SciFounders, Scribble Ventures.