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Disco Pharmaceuticals

An oncology drug discovery company operating out of Cologne, Germany and Schlieren, Switzerland. The company is building its R&D around a surface-protein discovery engine and is developing programs intended for global clinical development.

Founding and History

DISCO was founded in 2022 as a spin-out leveraging surface proteomics and oncology expertise from ETH Zürich and collaborators in Germany and Switzerland. The company has raised approximately €36 million in seed financing to date, supporting the build-out of its discovery platform and early pipeline of surfaceome-targeted oncology programs.

Therapy Areas and Focus

DISCO focuses exclusively on oncology, with an emphasis on hard-to-treat solid tumors. Its initial discovery programs target:

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
Microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer (MSS-CRC)

The broader strategy is to expand into additional tumor types as new cell-surface targets and target pairs are identified.

Technology Platforms and Modalities

DISCO’s core platform maps the “surfaceome” of cancer cells—proteins and protein communities on the cell surface—at scale. This approach is designed to identify novel, cancer-selective targets and target pairs that cannot be reliably derived from genomic or transcriptomic data alone.
The company focuses on large-molecule, target-directed modalities, including:

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)
Bispecific antibodies
T-cell engagers

Current programs are in discovery and preclinical development, progressing toward IND-enabling studies rather than clinical Phases I–III.

Key Personnel

Mark Manfredi, PhD – Chief Executive Officer
Johannes Heuckmann, PhD – Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Ajla Hrle, PhD – Chief Business Officer
Emanuela Tschudy-Milani, PhD – Vice President Technology & Head of DISCO Zürich
Tobias Schmidt, PhD – Vice President Discovery
Roopika Menon, PhD – Vice President Tissue Analytics
François Bertelli, PhD – Vice President ADC Development

Strategic Partnerships

DISCO is backed by a syndicate of life science investors including Sofinnova Partners, AbbVie Ventures, M Ventures, Panakes Partners, and regional institutional investors. The company collaborates with academic and clinical partners in Switzerland and Germany to apply its surfaceome-mapping technology to defined tumor types and to support preclinical validation of targets and drug candidates.

FAQ Section

DISCO is built around surfaceome mapping to identify cancer-relevant cell-surface targets and translate them into therapeutic programs using antibody-based modalities.

DISCO focuses on cancer, primarily solid tumors, with early stated emphasis that includes lung and colorectal cancer settings.

DISCO has described its pipeline as preclinical and built from surfaceome-derived target discoveries. The company’s stated development approach includes advancing multiple antibody-based programs, including bispecific formats, ADCs, and T-cell engagers, toward IND-enabling packages.

In December 2025, DISCO appointed Mark Manfredi as CEO and announced the final close of its seed financing at EUR 36 million. The company has also highlighted business development leadership build-out with the appointment of a chief business officer effective January 2025.

DISCO has not reported clinical trial data to date. Its disclosed programs are at the preclinical stage, focused on target discovery, validation, and lead-candidate selection.

Near-term milestones are centered on selecting development candidates from the surfaceome discovery engine and completing IND-enabling work to support first-in-human studies.

The company is led by a CEO with prior oncology drug development and biopharma leadership experience, supported by a business development lead responsible for partnering and financing activity and a scientific team focused on surfaceome target discovery and translation into antibody-based therapeutics.

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