Therapeutics · Ovarian cancer
Tradewind BioScience
A two person antibody company built around EGFL6, a secreted protein that ovarian tumors make and healthy adult tissue mostly does not. The biology is published and the antibody is humanized. Nothing has reached a patient.
The patent he found on Google
Thaddeus Allen had circled the same protein for about a decade, since the University of California, San Francisco, where he worked in the laboratory of the Nobel laureate J. Michael Bishop on how a secreted protein called EGFL6 affected lung cancer cells. He kept the work to himself.
“I wanted to keep things secret until things had progressed to a certain point. A point of inevitability.”
Then he went looking for who else was on the protein, and the search turned up a filing from the University of Michigan.
“I found him on Google patents and I found the patent first. I contacted the tech transfer office and they put me in touch with [him].”
The name on it was Ronald Buckanovich, a physician scientist who had reached EGFL6 from the opposite direction: through blood vessels, since the protein was first flagged as a marker of the vasculature feeding ovarian tumors. In November 2016 his Michigan lab reported in Cancer Research that EGFL6 drives the asymmetric division of a treatment resistant population of ovarian cancer stem-like cells, and that a neutralizing antibody cut tumor growth and metastasis in mice. Michigan Medicine put numbers on it: switching EGFL6 on made cancer grow two to three times faster, removing it slowed tumors about fourfold, and the blocking antibody cut cancer stem cells by 35 percent.
The two formed Tradewind BioScience in 2017, licensed the Michigan intellectual property, and launched at Y Combinator demo day in March 2018.
A protein the adult body does not need
Most cancer targets are broken machinery: a kinase stuck on, a gene amplified twenty times over. EGFL6 is neither. It is a growth factor the body secretes during development, switches off in adults, and switches back on in tumors.
“It is a unique finding that a secreted protein can drive cancer, in this case ovarian cancer.”
Because the protein is secreted rather than sitting on a cell surface, the antibody does not have to kill anything. It has to mop up. In the company’s own words: “Our inhibitory antibody binds to this secreted protein and acts like a sponge, holding it is an inactive conformation.”
Allen has said the target stayed hidden because it is not mutated or amplified in the standard cancer genome data sets, and only matters under the severe stress tumors create.
Why ovarian cancer first
The company states its reasoning plainly: “For ovarian malignancy there is no equivalent of a mammogram that might result in early detection and consequently, many diagnoses are late stage, where cancer has already spread.” The federal grant abstract is narrower and more useful. It names the first intended indication as platinum resistant ovarian cancer after PARP inhibitor treatment.
Allen has argued the target is not confined there, citing survival data in lung, colorectal and triple negative breast cancer. Independent groups agree the biology travels. That cuts both ways: Tradewind is not alone on EGFL6.
Where the program actually stands
In April 2021 the National Cancer Institute awarded Tradewind an STTR Phase I grant worth $405,552, with Allen as principal investigator and a project period running to March 31, 2023.
That work produced a paper. In February 2023 Gynecologic Oncology published results from Buckanovich’s group, by then at the University of Pittsburgh: 26 humanized variants, an affinity matured lead series binding EGFL6 at 150 picomolar to 2.67 nanomolar, and two leads that restricted growth of an EGFL6 expressing ovarian cancer patient derived xenograft while suppressing angiogenesis. The acknowledgment credits the Tradewind grant by number.
Then the record goes quiet. The grant ended in March 2023. The website still carries a 2021 copyright. The Y Combinator directory lists team size 2 and status Active in September 2026. There is no registered trial, no disclosed investigational new drug application, and no announced financing since Y Combinator.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Federal grant | NIH STTR Phase I 1R41CA250757-01A1, National Cancer Institute, $405,552, awarded Apr 20, 2021, period to Mar 31, 2023. PI: Thaddeus David Allen. First indication in the abstract: platinum resistant ovarian cancer after PARP inhibitor treatment. No Phase II award found. | Public record |
| Antibody data, peer reviewed | Gynecologic Oncology, Feb 2023. Humanized affinity matured EGFL6 antibodies at 150 pM to 2.67 nM; two leads restricted growth of an EGFL6 expressing ovarian cancer patient derived xenograft. The acknowledgment credits “an NIH STTR grant R41CA250757 to Tradewind BioScience, Inc., Daly City, CA, and the University of Pittsburgh.” No Tradewind employee is an author. | Public record |
| Founding biology | Cancer Research, Nov 1, 2016. EGFL6 regulates asymmetric division, maintenance and metastasis of ALDH-positive ovarian cancer cells. A correction followed in 2017. | Public record |
| Clinical stage | No registered trial for Tradewind or any anti-EGFL6 antibody in the records pull as of Sep 22, 2026. No IND disclosed. No FDA 510(k) or PMA record, as expected for an unsubmitted biologic. | Not found |
| Patents held by Tradewind | A Justia search on the company name returns no patents. Issued anti-EGFL6 antibody estates found instead belong to the University of Texas System (application 16/075,711) and Taipei Medical University (US 11,578,121, granted Feb 14, 2023). | Not found |
| License from Michigan | “The company’s foundation is built upon licensing its intellectual property from the University of Michigan, which was the basis for its first target.” No terms are public. | Company-stated |
| Co-founder involvement | Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nov 2024: “RJB is a cofounder of Tradewind Bioscience. He has received no income from Tradewind and Tradewind did not provide any support for the work performed here.” | Public record |
| Headquarters | Three addresses appear. Contact page and SBIR awardee profile: MBC BioLabs, San Carlos, CA. The 2023 paper: Daly City, CA. The Y Combinator directory: San Francisco. | Records disagree |
| Second program | An epigenetic regulator and targets said to overlap between fibrotic lung disease and cancer, to be pursued as bispecific antibodies. No data, grant or publication found. | Company-stated |
Read plainly: the target is real and the antibodies work in mice. That is a real achievement, and it is also where the program stood when the federal grant closed in March 2023. What separates a preclinical antibody from a drug is toxicology, manufacturing, a regulatory filing and a first patient. None of the four appears in the public record. Two well resourced academic groups outside Tradewind also hold their own anti-EGFL6 antibody estates.
What to watch
- A Phase II STTR, the natural follow on to R41CA250757, which ended in March 2023.
- A first Form D or any priced round. There is currently no SEC registrant under the company name.
- An IND filing or trial registration for an anti-EGFL6 antibody, from Tradewind or anyone else.
- Whether the Michigan license is still in force, and whether the Texas and Taipei estates block freedom to operate.
In their words
“I found him on Google patents and I found the patent first. I contacted the tech transfer office and they put me in touch with [him].”
Thaddeus Allen, founder and CEO, TechCrunch, 2018 · Independent
“I wanted to keep things secret until things had progressed to a certain point. A point of inevitability.”
Thaddeus Allen, TechCrunch, 2018 · Independent
“Tumors use EGFL6 to tell the cancer cells to migrate and then divide. You’re telling the cancer cells to metastasize”
Ronald Buckanovich, co-founder, TechCrunch, 2018 · Independent
“When you go downstream in these [treatment] processes it’s a little bit like whack a mole”
Diego Rey, Y Combinator visiting partner, TechCrunch, 2018 · Independent
“In the pre-clinical models where we have tested our prototype antibody therapeutic, we can achieve a profound anti-tumor response.”
Thaddeus Allen, CEOCFO Magazine interview, 2019 · Interview
“There was no toxicity observed with respect to tissue or blood cell homeostasis, so we have not observed any toxic effect to date.”
Thaddeus Allen, CEOCFO Magazine interview, 2019 · Interview
“These patients could be treated before cancer develops, potentially blocking cancer from developing or preventing it from spreading.”
Ronald Buckanovich, on high risk women, Michigan Medicine Health Lab, 2016 · Independent
“I envision a world in which mothers do not die of ovarian cancer, but live to watch their children and grandchildren grow up.”
Ronald Buckanovich, investigator profile, Magee-Womens Research Institute · Independent
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordNIH RePORTER project 1R41CA250757-01A1
- Public recordGeneration and characterization of humanized affinity-matured EGFL6 antibodies for ovarian cancer therapy
- Public recordEGFL6 Regulates the Asymmetric Division, Maintenance, and Metastasis of ALDH+ Ovarian Cancer Cells, with 2017 correction
- Public recordEgfl6 promotes ovarian cancer progression through tumor-associated myeloid cells
- Public recordDifferential Effects of EGFL6 on Tumor versus Wound Angiogenesis
- Public recordEGFL6 promotes breast cancer metastasis and tumor angiogenesis
- Public recordUS application 20190031751 and US patent 11,578,121, competing anti-EGFL6 antibody estates
- Public recordEDGAR company search, registrants matching Tradewind, form type D
- IndependentTradewind BioScience attacks the physiology of tumors to treat cancer
- InterviewQ&A with Thaddeus Allen, PhD, Founder and CEO of Tradewind BioScience, Inc.
- IndependentNew Target Could Halt Growth and Spread of Ovarian Cancer
- IndependentTradewind Bioscience Inc SBIR awardee company profile
- IndependentTradewind BioScience funding rounds and investors
- IndependentRonald J. Buckanovich, MD, PhD, investigator profile
- IndependentTradewind BioScience case study on freedom to operate work
- CompanyTradewind BioScience science, team and contact pages
- CompanyTradewind BioScience company page, team size and status
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
