Trimtech Therapeutics has closed a seed funding round of $31m (£25m) to advance its pipeline of the central nervous system (CNS)-penetrant therapeutics that are based on Trimtacs, the aggregate-selective degrader molecules.
SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) spearheaded the funding round, with contributions from M Ventures and Pfizer Ventures.
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Additional financial backing came from Eli Lilly and Company, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Start Codon and MP Healthcare Venture Management.
Trimtech Therapeutics CEO Nicola Thompson stated: “This oversubscribed financing round and the outstanding quality of our investor syndicate is a great endorsement of Trimtech’s unique approach to targeting the selective removal of aggregated proteins that underpin so many CNS diseases, and recognises our impressive scientific foundations and world-class team.”
The company’s pipeline focuses on creating treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.
Trimtech’s approach utilises the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM21’s innate properties to target protein aggregates associated with a variety of conditions.
The strategy harnesses TRIM21’s properties in the Trimtac degrader molecules’ form for developing treatments for huge patient populations who lack adequate treatment alternatives.
Trimtech was founded by CIC and DDF in collaboration with entrepreneur-in-residence Damian Crowther, along with academic co-founders Leo James from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Will McEwan from the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.
The company has also announced the appointment of several life science executives to its board of directors.
These include Michael Anstey from Cambridge Innovation Capital and Laurence Barker from SV Health Investors.
M Ventures managing director Hakan Goker, MP Healthcare Venture Management president Jeffrey Moore and Pfizer Ventures Marie-Claire Peakman are also included on the board.
