It’s a kind of control that no one has ever tried before in patients,” Tune’s chief scientific officer said Monday.

A Durham biotech firm founded on technology built at Duke University has raised $175 million to fund clinical trials of its treatment that tunes gene activity within the body. Why it matters: The fundraising round by Tune Therapeutics is one of the largest in the Triangle in recent months and will give the company runway to collect more data on its leading drug,

Tune Therapeutics, a biotech company with headquarters in Seattle and Durham, N.C., raised $175 million in one of the largest funding rounds for a Seattle-area startup in recent years. Tune is using a pioneering technology called epigenetic editing to control gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence itself.

Investors clearly appreciate the song Tune Therapeutics is singing, handing over $175 million in series B funds as the biotech takes its epigenetic silencing drug into the clinic.