Mapping Cancer’s Surface Wins DISCO a $618M Amgen Pact

German biotech DISCO secures €36M seed funding and a $618M Amgen deal using a platform that maps cancer cell surface proteins to reveal new drug targets

9 Mar 2026

Biotech investors rarely move slowly when they sense a new frontier. In late 2025 a young firm from Cologne offered them one. DISCO Pharmaceuticals closed a €36m ($39m) seed round in December, backed by Sofinnova Partners, AbbVie Ventures and M Ventures. Weeks later, in January 2026, it announced a licensing agreement with Amgen worth up to $618m in milestones plus royalties.

Both events rest on the same idea: that the most useful clues for new cancer drugs may lie not in genes but on the outer skin of tumour cells.

DISCO’s platform maps what scientists call the “surfaceome”, the full set of proteins displayed on the cell surface. These molecules are especially attractive drug targets because antibodies and other large biologic medicines can easily bind to them. Yet historically only a few have proved usable. Of the thousands of proteins that may appear on a cancer cell’s surface, fewer than 30 have yielded successful drug targets.

The firm argues that the problem has been one of visibility. Genomics and transcriptomics reveal what genes are present or active, but not necessarily which proteins appear on the cell membrane. By directly mapping those proteins, DISCO hopes to uncover targets suited for modern cancer therapies such as bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, two fast-growing approaches in oncology.

The company says it has already produced the first comprehensive surfaceome map of small-cell lung cancer, a disease long associated with poor treatment options.

Amgen’s agreement gives the American drugmaker exclusive rights to develop and commercialise therapies against a target discovered through the platform. Milestones worth up to $618m would be paid as programmes progress, alongside royalties on eventual sales. "The collaboration with Amgen enables us to potentially translate these biological insights into innovative therapies," said CEO Mark Manfredi at the time of the announcement.

The deal reflects a wider shift in cancer research. As obvious genomic targets grow crowded, drugmakers are hunting elsewhere for fresh biology. The cell surface, long visible yet poorly mapped, has become an appealing next hunting ground.

Founded in 2022 as a spinout from ETH Zurich, the University of Cologne and Stanford University, DISCO remains young. But its early success suggests that the next wave of oncology targets may not lie inside the cell at all, but on its outer edge.