Brian Frenzel has devoted his career to developing new medical products to address important, unmet medical needs. He has co-founded and invested in a number of innovative biomedical companies, including biopharmaceutical, cell therapy, medical device, and diagnostic product companies. In the process, Brian Frenzel has found himself at the forefront of medical research in such diverse fields as AIDS, Hepatitis C, pre-term labor, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, and neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Brian Frenzel’s most recent startup company, Tosk, Inc., is dedicated to improving outcomes for cancer patients. The company’s first products are designed to block the dose-limiting and potentially fatal adverse side effects of widely used cancer therapies. Recently, Tosk has discovered a new method to screen drugs for their potential to block cancer genes. This technology involves genetically modifying strains of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, by implanting human genes into their genomes in such a way that compounds can be screened for their ability to block the cancer gene’s activity. Tosk uses this platform to discover candidate drugs for previously considered “undruggable” targets, such as the kRAS oncogene. Tosk believes that using a whole animal model, instead of traditional approaches, such as cell culture and molecular modeling, provides a relatively better platform to discover drugs for difficult-to-modulate targets. The company is deploying this approach to discover and develop new drugs for kRAS positive cancers, which include 90% of pancreatic, 45% of colon, and 35% of lung cancers.
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Life science entrepreneur and private investor Brian Frenzel has extensive experience founding and growing startups and guiding them to successful exits for investors. Drawing on his deep knowledge of biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals, Brian Frenzel is the CEO of Tosk, Inc. Tosk’s mission is to improve outcomes for cancer patients by eliminating the dose-limiting, often debilitating, and potentially fatal adverse effects of cancer therapies and to make certain therapies effective in patients who currently do not benefit from treatment. One of these drugs is TK-90, which recently completed the first phase of human clinical trials. TK-90 is designed to protect against the mucositis triggered by certain cancer therapies and antibiotics. Mucositis is caused by inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract and can result in painful ulcers in the mouth and throughout the GI tract. Mucositis can open a route of infection that can be dangerous for immune-compromised patients. Mucositis can also limit the dosing of certain cancer drugs to less than would otherwise be desirable. TK-90 has now entered the second phase of testing in head and neck cancer patients. This phase is designed to determine the optimal dose of TK-90 and to further demonstrate both the safety and efficacy of the drug. |
AuthorAt Genelabs Technologies in the 1980’s, Brian Frenzel served on the front lines in the war on HIV/AIDS and championed projects to identify and diagnose new hepatitis viruses. Archives
June 2020
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