source Shutterstock Boston-based biotech startup Akouos is the first of its kind to use gene therapy to tackle genetic-based hearing disorders. The company announced $50 million in Series A funding on Tuesday. The funding will help Akouos advance its first program into human trials, support its pipeline for therapies, and build out both its team and its platform. Akouos is a new biotech startup that’s trying to address a $750 billion problem: hearing loss. Manny Simons, co-founder and CEO of Akouos, spent his college and grad school years figuring out the biology of the ear and how to deliver drugs to the right parts of the ear. His interests drew him to his now co-founders at Massachusetts Eye and Ear about 15 years ago. The Boston-based company announced on Tuesday that it raised $50 million in its Series A funding round. It was co-led by Seed investors 5AM Ventures and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), followed by Partners Innovation Fund, … [Read more...] about Akouos, a biotech startup that’s trying to tackle a $750 billion global problem, just announced it’s raised a new funding round
Biotech
Ovid Therapeutics shares fall 28% as investors question new drug data
source Markets Insider New York-based biotech company Ovid Therapeutics announced on Monday positive phase 2 trial results for its treatment for a rare disease called Angelman Syndrome. Its stock, however, was down 28% following the announcement. Shares of Ovid Therapeutics fell 28% on Monday, after investors questioned the efficacy of phase 2 data from a new drug used to treat a rare disease called Angelman Syndrome. The drug showed a favorable safety profile and was tolerated in adults and adolescents with the disease, which is a rare and lifelong genetic disorder that affects 1 in 15,000 people in the US. Those afflicted by Angelman show severe impairment in behavior, learning, verbal communication, motor skills, and sleep, and there are no FDA-approved drugs or an established treatment for it yet. The drug, OV101, targets an underlying neurological dysfunction of the disease which results in communication problems between the brain’s neurons. The … [Read more...] about Ovid Therapeutics shares fall 28% as investors question new drug data
$12 billion Samumed, which wants to cure baldness and smooth out your wrinkles, just raised even more funding as it plots IPO
caption Samumed CEO Osman Kibar, CFO Cevdet Samikoglu, and chief medical officer Yusuf Yazici source Diana Yukari/Business Insider; photos courtesy Samumed Samumed, a San Diego-based biotech is one of the highest valued healthcare startups in the US with a $12 billion valuation. On Monday, the company raised an additional $438 million, bringing its total funding to $650 million. The company is working on treatments to regenerate everything from hair to cartilage. Samumed, a private biotech that’s racked up the heady valuation of $12 billion, just raised an additional $438 million at that valuation. The company is developing a pipeline of what could be revolutionary treatments to regenerate hair, skin, bones, and joints. The funding will be used to move those treatments further along in development and potentially to approval. “We are now in a fortunate position to both move our later stage programs to commercialization, as well as expand on our … [Read more...] about $12 billion Samumed, which wants to cure baldness and smooth out your wrinkles, just raised even more funding as it plots IPO
A medical diagnostics startup that wants to use CRISPR technology to detect diseases just raised $23 million in venture funding
caption The science team behind Mammoth Biosciences source Mammoth Biosciences Mammoth Biosciences announced a $23 million funding round on Tuesday, setting the company up to try and make a dent in the $45 billion global disease detection market. The startup uses CRISPR-based technology to detect the presence of diseases like HPV and malaria in DNA from blood or urine samples. The technology is easily transportable and doesn’t require expensive machines to run tests. Mammoth Biosciences‘ motto is simple: to make up-to-date diagnostics simple, accessible and affordable. “If you think about what we’re offering it’s kind of like a pregnancy test,” said Trevor Martin, co-founder and CEO of Mammoth Biosciences. But instead of tracking hormones that indicates whether a person is pregnant or not, it tracks the presence of diseases like HPV or malaria. On Tuesday, Mammoth announced that they’ve raised $23M, led by top … [Read more...] about A medical diagnostics startup that wants to use CRISPR technology to detect diseases just raised $23 million in venture funding
Molecules From Breast Milk and Seaweed Suggest Strategies for Controlling Norovirus
Norovirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis worldwide; it causes tens hundreds of thousands of deaths each year and is particularly risky for children under 3 years old. If someone gets norovirus in a setting like a hospital, it's critically important to find a way to protect others from getting infected. New research from several universities in Germany, to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, suggests that it may be easier than anticipated to find a compound that could be used as a food supplement to stop the spread of norovirus in children's hospitals. Norovirus causes disease after entering cells in the gut by binding to a sugar molecule called fucose, which is found on cell surfaces as part of the structure that determines human ABO blood types. Fucose is also found in breast milk and other foods. Norovirus can't tell the difference between fucoses that are part of cells in the gut and those that are simply passing through; for this reason, adding a … [Read more...] about Molecules From Breast Milk and Seaweed Suggest Strategies for Controlling Norovirus