Sometimes a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The startup Catabasis Pharmaceuticals is hoping that will hold true for the multifunctional drugs it’s developing.

The company, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has developed a chemical linker technology that can bring together two different therapeutic components so they have a greater effect on their target pathways than they would if both compounds were administered separately. The company hopes their lead therapy will target the complex inflammation pathways in patients with irritable bowel syndromes such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.