Australian preclinical biotechnology company Mirugen has secured investor backing to progress the development of its (re)programming cells to unlock innate cellular repair mechanisms.
The company raised $4.5 million after the successful close of a seed financing round. It also announced the appointment of Charlotte Casebourne Stock as Executive Chair.
To date, Mirugen has raised $7.1 million, with the seed financing round building on non-dilutive funding awards from CUREator, bringing together a syndicate of investors comprising Brandon Capital, Tin Alley Ventures, and the University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund.
The proceeds from the financing round support the development of Mirugen’s core technology and its lead Retinitis Pigmentosa programme through translational development.
Charlotte Casebourne Stock, Executive Partner at Yarvie, has an executive track record of bringing biologics from concept to clinic, creating companies that integrate diverse stakeholders, and achieving international reach. Most recently, she led Oxford, UK-based Theolytics from inception into the clinic, raising over $45 million.
She said, "Mirugen has the potential to become the pioneer for in vivo cell (re)programming. I am excited to join forces with the Co-Founders and Investors for this next chapter: delivering proof of concept for our core technology; progressing towards IND-enabling studies; and building out a world-class leadership team as the foundations for Mirugen to become a resilient leader in this field."
Co-founded by Associate Professor Raymond Wong and Professor Keith Martin, Mirugen builds on the Nobel Prize-winning science behind cellular reprogramming. Mirugen’s discovery platform leverages sequencing data, bioinformatics, and high-throughput screening to identify the optimal set of cellular instructions to ask one cell type to become another.
A spin-out from the Centre for Eye Research Australia, Mirugen leverages the co-founders’ deep expertise in the fundamental biology of retinal repair for their lead Retinitis Pigmentosa programme.
Co-founder and Medical Director Keith Martin said that for the 1.5 million individuals worldwide affected by Retinitis Pigmentosa, severe depletion of the light-sensing cells in the eye is the cause of progressive visual loss.
"With Mirugen’s lead candidate, we target nascent stem cells in the eye, called Muller glial cells, to replace and regenerate the lost photoreceptors. If successful, we anticipate this approach will also translate to some of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, including Age-related Macular Degeneration and Stargardt’s disease," he said.
Dr Winnie Gao, University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, added, "This co-investment in Mirugen reflects our belief that world-class research moves faster through collaboration. By leveraging both capital and capability, we hope to facilitate the necessary support for Mirugen to scale and deliver its therapies to patients sooner."