Cerevance’s Post

The next episode of Raising Biotech is up, this time looking at the CNS and Parkinson's disease with Cerevance. In this episode, CEO Craig Thompson joins the podcast to speak about Cerevance's unique mission and use of its NETSseq platform to develop more targeted precision medicines for CNS diseases, particularly targeting the GPR6 receptor in Parkinson's disease. Craig speaks about the company's origins, its unique financing journey (close to $200 million since inception), what drove him to join during the company's growth phase, plans for upcoming clinical trials as well as a potential near-term IPO. Expert neurologist Dr Karl Kieburtz, the founder of advisory firm Clintrex and Professor in Neurology at the University of Rochester Medical School gives us his take on the general Parkinson's unmet need and Cerevance's unique mission to go beyond targeting the dopaminergic pathway. As a company advisor, Karl has a good understanding of the NETSseq platform and how targeting GPR6 might make a meaningful difference for Parkinsons' patients, but he also illustrates what challenges Cerevance will need to carefully navigate to avoid a crowded Parkinson's graveyard. Listen (and find time stamps) here ⏯️: Apple: https://lnkd.in/eReD-fwt Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e-7_ChQu This episode is proud to be partnered with Mindgram - a research tool powered by AI serving the global biopharma community. Raising Biotech listeners are able to get an exclusive free trial (link in show notes). GV (Google Ventures) Gates Frontier (Bill Gates), Lightstone Ventures, Agent Capital Bioluminescence Ventures Double Point Ventures MQB Partners Liferock Ventures Dolby Family Ventures UPMC Enterprises Casdin Capital, LLC #biotech #venturecapital #parkinsonsdisease #CNS

Some really interesting biotech's to keep an eye out for this year! From the creation of novel psychedelic treatments to treating viral infections or developing tough-to-treat cancer treatments, these top 15 biotech's have been named ones to look out for as they develop and define the future in the industry. #biotech #emergingbiotech #startups

It is a challenging financing environment for #biotechnology and #diagnostics #startups. Still, it is more urgent than ever to tackle important clinical problems. #Sepsis is one that tops the list at hospitals. Many of us, me included, have loved ones that succumbed to this condition. Cytovale's #fdacleared IntelliSep test can make a meaningful difference, identifying patients with abnormal immune cell physiology indicative of sepsis within 10 minutes in an #emergencydepartment. Time is critical, with mortality and morbidity increasing with each hour of delay in diagnosing sepsis. Congratulations to the Cytovale team including Ajay Shah, Bill Blackledge, Henry Tse and many others on securing this $84M Series C financing. A fantastic partnership with Norwest Venture Partners, Sands Capital, Global Health Investment Corporation and other new and current investors to make the #IntelliSep test available to more hospitals. We can help address the urgent challenges patients, doctors, and hospital systems have in identifying sepsis early to make the appropriate care decisions, saving lives and reducing the economic burden of sepsis. https://lnkd.in/gkmT6GEt

We’re thrilled to announce the successful close of our seed extension financing, raising £4m to date to advance our groundbreaking mitochondrial-protective #therapeutics aimed at arresting the progression of degenerative diseases. Our focus on reversing mitochondrial dysfunction holds promise for treating rare conditions like #Duchenne muscular dystrophy and #Huntington’s disease, along with common neurodegenerative diseases. Our innovative approach has shown encouraging preclinical results, validating our platform in a mammalian model of severe neuromuscular disease which is extendable to other degenerative diseases. This funding enables us to advance a lead asset toward the clinic and provides a firm foundation to secure a Series A to take us to the clinic within two years. 🤝 We're grateful for the ongoing support from existing investors, including the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, Wren Capital LLP, LongevityTech.fund and more. 🔗Read our press release: https://lnkd.in/ejJVNmdp #BioTech #Innovation #Mitochondria Jon Rees, Christine Charman, Oliver Sexton

Patients are the Platform A generation ago, the only rare disease parents who could even attempt to develop new medicines for their children were established biotech executives, e.g., John Crowley and Amicus Therapeutics. Since then, a new class of highly-educated, well-resourced and cure-focused rare disease parents has emerged. I posit that a fund specifically focused on enabling and guiding these entrepreneurs would be uniquely positioned to capitalize on their singular focus and tenacity, highly valuable traits in founders of all industries. Parents of those afflicted by a rare genetic disease bring sterling credibility within the patient community. They have the unique ability to mobilize the dozens of families needed for a pivotal Phase III trial, another key bottleneck in rare disease drug development. More than any single platform technology, these parents have superior founder/market fit. With the right guidance, these traits would enable them to reach the clinic faster, cheaper, and with a higher success rate than established managers and incumbents.

Sakura Holloway, Investment Director at UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, comments on Presymptom Health as they are featured in today’s huge BBC News 'AI in Healthcare' story, with thanks to the brilliant Zoe Kleinman.  “Huge congrats to Iain Miller, PhD, MBA and the team. This technology is an incredibly important use of AI. Being able to diagnose infection before someone shows signs of infection is a mind-blowing example of “tech for good” - and at a time when Artificial Intelligence is under such huge scrutiny. "As early stage investors, we have a huge role to play in backing technologies which can truly improve our lives and it’s a big responsibility to open up the route to funding - especially when it comes to emerging tech. “Here we have an incredible example of a “lab to life” journey that people don’t see so much - UKI2S invested in Presymptom because its impact on humanity is immediately obvious and it has the potential to save countless lives. “As the first investors in this tech, we are proud to stand alongside Ploughshare who enabled this innovation to emerge from our #UK #Defence laboratories and to be the “proof of concept” investors - helping to bring this AI infection technology to market and in turn, to the world.” More to come soon on our investment, watch this space 👀 https://lnkd.in/eJJYxTkC Future Planet Capital

Investment Review day 3 of 50: Guardant Health $GH Guardant Health is at the forefront of liquid biopsy innovation. Their blood tests enable early cancer detection via the analysis of circulating tumor DNA. This has the potential to revolutionize patient outcomes. Guardant is a key holding in my healthcare portfolio, I bought stock in 2019 and again in 2020. The market for liquid biopsy is rapidly growing, but it's also intensely competitive. Regulatory hurdles and reimbursement issues remain challenges. The long-term outlook is promising, yet uncertain. Which medtech companies do you own? -- I'm putting my holdings under the microscope. Over the next 50 days I'll break down my whole investment portfolio. Wins, losses, and the 'why' behind it all. And on day 50 I'm going to share the full portfolio! Follow me and let's learn together! #StockAnalysis #50daychallenge #investing #liquidbiopsy #cancerdetection

https://lnkd.in/d9jBs6Wg Join us next Wednesday July 10th at 16:30 – 17:30 UAE for the first webinar of the series. FROM BIG DATA TO BEDSIDE: IS AI REVOLUTIONIZING CANCER TREATMENT?

Have a read of this important piece on Alzheimer's Disease by The Medicine Maker featuring our CSO Ashley Barnes and our good friend Chris Ward from STRATASTEM LIMITED. Ashley and Chris discuss our learnings from over a decade in the iPSC industry including the value of human iPSC technology and how an Alzheimer's Disease "clinical trial in a dish" model could transform drug discovery. #iPSCs #AlzheimersDisease #CTIAD #StemCells #PatientStratification

Frank Ahmann, CEO & President of XM Therapeutics sat down for a Five Questions feature in the Providence Business News. Our sister fund, Slater Technology Fund, recently invested in XM, which spun out of Brown University and is developing new treatments for chronic heart and respiratory diseases. XM uses extracellular matrix, or #ECM, particles to treat #ChronicDiseases. According to Frank: "By repairing the abnormal ECM in various chronic disease states, we can correct #cell behavior and the #tissue as a whole. This has been a significant goal of #TissueEngineering but thus far, a practical, injectable and fully human product had not been developed. We are doing that." Read the full interview on PBN (just sign up for a free account quickly): https://lnkd.in/ehyaw5X3