Spin-off: 12 million euros for a novel gene editing platform

2023-03-16

(Press-News.org)

The TU Dresden Spin-off Seamless Therapeutics Launches with $12.5M Seed Financing to Advance Transformative Gene Editing Platform Based on Programmable Precision Designer Recombinases in Dresden

Seed round co-led by Wellington Partners and Forbion, with additional non-dilutive financial support from the BMBF (GO-Bio funding) enables maturation of the proprietary platform and pipeline towards first clinical evaluation

Seamless Therapeutics, a Dresden based start-up of the Technische Universität Dresden, today announced a $12.5 million (€11.8M) seed financing round which will accelerate further development of its designer recombinases, a novel gene editing platform to transform the treatment of severe diseases. Seamless Therapeutics was founded based on the visionary discoveries from its scientific founders, Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz, Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine and Head of Medical Systems Biology at the University Cancer Center of the Technische Universität Dresden, and his former PhD student Felix Lansing, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Seamless Therapeutics. Both are pioneers in the field of reprogrammable recombinases. Felix Lansing, PhD, will now be responsible for the further development of the company’s proprietary technology.

The company’s pioneering recombinase platform is able to program a widely used and established molecular biology tool to unlock the full potential of gene editing enabling the targeting of any site within the genome. The seed round was co-led by Wellington Partners and Forbion and includes non-dilutive financing from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF GO-Bio,-8B funding), a prestigious German government initiative supporting the most innovative startups in life sciences in Germany. Representatives from both Wellington and Forbion will join the company’s newly formed board of directors. The proceeds from the round will be used to further advance the company’s proprietary technology platform to build a pipeline of therapeutic candidates towards first-in-human readiness as well as to expand the company’s presence in the EU & US.

"I am very happy that our innovative and promising technology can now be transferred from basic research to a potential broad therapeutic application. The financial support provided by the BMBF and the investors will make a major contribution in this regard to advancing the development of this genome editing tool swiftly and purposefully," said Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz.

“Our modular platform has succeeded in reprogramming site-specific recombinases to any given target sequence effectively breaking the existing hurdles of leveraging this potential best-in-class gene editing system to treat human disease,” commented Felix Lansing, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Seamless Therapeutics. “I look forward to working with our founding investors and our highly skilled team to apply our deep knowledge of recombinases to develop a pipeline of novel treatments.”

“Our goal is to apply our deep understanding of recombinases to leverage their inherent benefits to repair genetic alterations that cause disease. We believe our pioneering technology will allow us to shatter the boundaries that exist in gene editing methods today,” said Anne-K. Heninger, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Seamless Therapeutics. “Both Wellington and Forbion are visionaries and highly experienced biotech investors, and we look forward to working closely with them in our efforts to transform the gene editing landscape.”

“We have entered a new era in drug discovery based on the promise of how precision gene editing can change the way we treat disease in the future. Seamless Therapeutics has a first-mover position with its innovative platform capable of modifying the long held standard recombination technology into a universal gene editing tool with unprecedented specificity. We are excited to support Seamless Therapeutics in its pursuit of taking a leadership position in the rapidly evolving gene editing arena,” added Karl Nägler, PhD, Managing Partner at Wellington Partners.

“At Forbion our philosophy is to seek out pioneering technologies early in their development and to enable founding teams to harness the true potential of their innovation. The team has developed a powerful new platform that has overcome key limitations of existing gene editing tools, such as CRISPR, prime & base editors,” said Dmitrij Hristodorov, PhD, Partner at Forbion.

Seamless Therapeutics' platform has succeeded in reprogramming site specific recombinases to any given target sequence and make a range of specific changes including inversion, excision, exchange, and insertion from small to larger DNA fragments. Recombinases are a class of enzymes that have been widely used in scientific research for decades to precisely modify the genome of model organisms but until now could not be applied as a therapeutic due to their limited programmability to act on new target sites.

About Seamless Therapeutics

Seamless Therapeutics is changing the paradigm of gene editing through a pioneering approach to restore health in patients with severe conditions in a safe and precise manner. Our technology platform unlocks the reprogramming of recombinases, a highly versatile class of enzymes. We are applying our proprietary know-how to develop a pipeline of disease-modifying product candidates across a broad spectrum of indications to expand the therapeutic potential of gene editing.

About Wellington Partners

Wellington Partners is a leading European venture capital firm investing in the most promising early- and growth stage life science companies in the fields of biotechnology, therapeutics, medical technology, diagnostics and digital health. With funds totaling more than €1.2 billion, thereof €590 million committed to life sciences, Wellington Partners has been actively supporting world class private companies translating true innovation into successful businesses with exceptional growth. To date, Wellington Partners has invested in 56 innovative life science companies, including Actelion (acquired by J&J), Definiens (acquired by AZ), Immatics (Nasdaq: IMTX). invendo (acquired by Ambu), MTM Laboratories (acquired by Roche/Ventana), Oxford Immunotec (acquired by PerkinElmer), Rigontec (acquired by MSD), Symetis (acquired by Boston Scientific), and Themis (acquired by MSD).

www.wellington-partners.com

About Forbion

Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio) pharmaceutical space. Forbion manages well over EUR 2.3 billion across multiple fund strategies that cover all stages of (bio-) pharmaceutical drug development. Forbion’s current team consists of over 30 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with investments in 95 companies. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients. The firm is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Forbion operates a joint venture with BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany. www.forbion.com

About BMBF GO-Bio

The BMBF funding initiative GO-Bio supports life science researchers with innovative ideas who are looking to go into business. It provides excellent conditions from an early project stage on for a successful switch from the lab to the economy.

https://www.go-bio.de/gobio/de/go-bio/go-bio/go-bio_node.html

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Paxlovid associated with lower risk of hospital admission

2023-03-16

PASADENA, Calif. — A Kaiser Permanente study confirms the benefit of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, also known as Paxlovid, as an early-stage treatment to prevent hospitalization for people with mild to moderate COVID-19, regardless of prior immunity or age. The study was published March 15, 2023, in Lancet ID. “Among Kaiser Permanente members in Southern California who tested positive for coronavirus infection, receiving Paxlovid within 5 days of the start of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with substantial reductions in the risk of hospital admission or death,” said Sara Tartof, PhD, the senior author of the study and an epidemiologist with the Kaiser ...

Children at risk of multiple sclerosis often go undetected in early stages

2023-03-16

Criteria used by neurologists to assess for multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults may fail to identify the illness in children with imaging suspicious for the disease, an oversight that could delay treatment of the disease at its earliest stages, according to a Rutgers study. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the primary tool used for diagnosis of MS, and doctors have applied various standards over the years to classify those most likely to develop the disease. The most recent standard, known as the McDonald criteria, was last updated in 2017. In some cases, imaging suspicious for MS is found incidentally ...

Breakthrough in the understanding of quantum turbulence

2023-03-16

Researchers have shown how energy disappears in quantum turbulence, paving the way for a better understanding of turbulence in scales ranging from the microscopic to the planetary. Dr Samuli Autti from Lancaster University is one of the authors of a new study of quantum wave turbulence together with researchers at Aalto University. The team’s findings, published in Nature Physics, demonstrate a new understanding of how wave-like motion transfers energy from macroscopic to microscopic length scales, and their results confirm ...

Selwyn Rogers named associate editor of prestigious New England Journal of Medicine

2023-03-16

Renowned University of Chicago Medicine trauma surgeon Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., MD, MPH, has been named an associate editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), effective March 16. The founding director of the UChicago Medicine Trauma Center, Rogers is a Professor of Surgery at UChicago and Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at its 1,296-bed academic health system based on Chicago’s South Side. A leading public health expert whose research focuses on the healthcare needs of underserved populations — particularly those impacted by intentional violence — he is the first surgeon in more than a decade to serve as an associate editor at NEJM, ...

Perovskite solar cells from the slot die coater - a step towards industrial production

2023-03-16

Metal halide perovskites are considered to be a particularly low-cost and promising class of materials for next-generation solar modules. Perovskite solar cells can be produced with coating processes using liquid inks made from precursor materials and various solvents. After coating, the solvents evaporate and the perovskites crystallise to form a more or less homogeneous layer. Options for upscaling Prof. Dr. Eva Unger's team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has extensive expertise in solution-based processing methods and is investigating options for upscaling. "Perovskite photovoltaics is the best solution-processable PV technology available," says Eva Unger, ...

Researchers highlight nucleolar DNA damage response in fight against cancer

2023-03-16

Cancer, which affects millions every year, requires proteins to spread through the body. In a new strategy to beat the wide-ranging disease, scientists are sabotaging its protein factories. In a new forum paper published in Trends in Biology, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte encapsulated the young field of nucleolar DNA damage response (DDR) pathways. The review highlights six mechanisms by which cells repair DNA damage, including one which was published five months ago in Nucleic Acids Research by the same authors. By attacking these mechanisms, future applied researchers will be able to ...

Food security: New tool can forecast food insecurity up to 30 days in advance

2023-03-16

A new tool that can be used to forecast the prevalence of individuals within a country that may have insufficient access to food — known as food insecurity — up to 30 days into the future is presented in a study published in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that the tool could aid decision makers in countries at risk of food insecurity and help facilitate more timely responses. Elisa Omodei and colleagues developed the tool using food consumption data from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen — all countries that have recently ...

Study of immune ‘neighborhoods’ highlights macrophages as key players in invasive breast cancers

2023-03-16

Most immunotherapies, which aim to boost T cell activity, work poorly in treating estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. Targeting a different type of immune cell called macrophages could be a more effective approach, suggests a comprehensive new analysis of invasive ER+ breast cancers led by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists. Published today in Nature Cancer, the study found that macrophages were the dominant immune cell infiltrating ER+ invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) and invasive ductal carcinoma ...

Genetic causes of three previously unexplained rare diseases identified

2023-03-16

New York, NY (March 16, 2023) – Using a new computational approach they developed to analyze large genetic datasets from rare disease cohorts, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and colleagues have discovered previously unknown genetic causes of three rare conditions: primary lymphedema (characterized by tissue swelling), thoracic aortic aneurysm disease, and congenital deafness. The work was done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK; KU Leuven, Belgium; the University of Tokyo; the University of Maryland; Imperial College London, and others from around the world. An enhanced understanding of the functions ...

NYU Abu Dhabi researchers discover a new approach to harvesting aerial humidity with organic crystals

2023-03-16

Fast facts: The global shortage of fresh water currently affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, and it is estimated that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will experience severe water scarcity and hunger due to loss of fertile farming lands caused by droughts. The discovery of alternative water-harvesting technologies holds the potential to alleviate the foreseeable socioeconomic impacts of severe water scarcity. Abu Dhabi, UAE, March 16 2023: Researchers of the Smart Materials Lab (SML) and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials (CSEM) at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have reported a novel method of harvesting water from ...

Spin-off: 12 million euros for a novel gene editing platform

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: