HC Bioscience, a drug discovery and development company focused on first-in-class tRNA-based therapeutics targeting protein dysfunction, completed at $24 million series A financing to advance its platform technologies.
Photo: Leslie Williams, president and CEO of HC Bioscience
Investors in the round included ARCH Venture Partners, Takeda Ventures, and 8VC.
HC Bio is advancing two complementary platforms. One is directed at restoring protein function when “nonsense mutations,” or premature termination codons, cause protein dysfunction, a problem responsible for 10 to 15 percent of all human disease. This platform, called PTCX (“Patch”), employs tRNA that suppresses such errors in the genetic code to allow the proper full-length protein to be produced.
HC Bio is simultaneously developing a second tRNA-based platform called SWTX (“Switch”) to target diseases caused by missense mutations. This technology is designed to correct for such mutations in proteins that cause disease.
“We are creating medicines to restore protein function to its intended state without editing genes,” said Leslie Williams, president and CEO of HC Bioscience. “A single tRNA therapy has the potential to treat many diseases regardless of the gene or location of the mutation.”
Concurrent with the close of the series A financing, HC Bio has appointed David Altreuter, as chief technology officer. Altreuter brings extensive experience in the design and development of novel drug products where innovative delivery has a central role. He holds more than 40 patents/patent applications and has served in leadership positions at Lyndra Therapeutics, Acusphere, Alnylam, Selecta Biosciences, and Quiet Therapeutics.
Author: Rare Daily Staff
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