Eikonoklastes Licenses Novel Gene Therapy to Address Neurodegenerative Diseases

Eikonoklastes Therapeutics has completed a license with the University of California San Diego to add a novel gene therapy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Photo: Bruce Halpryn, CEO of Eikonoklastes

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is often fatal three to five years after diagnosis and causes an irreversible degeneration of motor neurons. Motor neurons are the nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain that move the muscles needed for breathing, walking, and swallowing, among other daily activities.

“We expect to see more than 29,000 ALS cases in the United States alone by 2040. Patients and their families deserve to be able to seek novel and safe therapies to treat this devastating disease,” said Bruce Halpryn, CEO of Eikonoklastes. “This is just the beginning as Eikonoklastes Therapeutics expands its pipeline of disruptive new therapies to treat devastating diseases that are currently severely inadequately treated.”

Brian Head, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego and inventor of the gene therapy technology, said his team looks forward to helping develop therapies to fight catastrophic neurodegenerative diseases. “Our gene therapy is a unique, neuroprotective approach to helping patients,” said Head, who is also a consultant to Eikonoklastes. “We hope to make significant progress in the treatment of ALS and give families hope for the future.”

Eikonoklastes raised a series A financing in the second quarter of 2021, less than a year after emerging from stealth with its seed financing. The company was founded to rapidly advance breakthrough technologies, starting with a novel fusion protein for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer.

The company has engineered molecules that attack three key components of the tumor microenvironment (the tumor cells, the diseased neovasculature, and tumor stem cells) by activating the body’s natural immune system without harming normal cells.

Author: Rare Daily Staff