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Antoxerene, a pharmaceutical company that develops small molecule drugs for pathways of aging, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $1.5M seed round. Michael Greve’s Kizoo Technology Capital, SENS Research Foundation, and private investors participated in the round.
Drug screening is commonly performed in the life sciences to identify leads for drug development. However, several biologic pathways of known importance to aging are unable to be screened effectively because proteins necessary for the screen cannot be manufactured at sufficient purity and scale.
“This is an exciting time to be working on a drug discovery initiative,” stated Kelsey Moody, CEO at Antoxerene. “We believe that our next generation screens will have higher predictive value than traditional approaches, and for some pathways, could give us first on-target therapeutic candidates.”
Antoxerene is a pharmaceutical company that uses proprietary next generation screening technology to identify small molecule compounds to target pathways of aging. The company is headquartered in LaFayette, NY and is an affiliate of Ichor Therapeutics, Inc.
Under a co-development deal with Finger Lakes Bio, Antoxerene has used proprietary RecombiPure expression technology to develop screens for the p53/MDM2 pathway, a major oncology target, and the p53/FOXO4 pathway, a newly identified pathway involved in cellular aging, among others.
Finger Lakes Bio is a client of the CNY Biotech Accelerator. The company is led by CEO Aaron Wolfe, who is currently a PhD candidate in the physics department at Syracuse University, and Adam Blanden, a MD/PhD candidate at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Their pre-seed startup drug and biologic development company develops screening and drug testing platforms for pre-IND drug discovery programs focusing on p53.
“High-throughput drug screens are an essential component of any medical research program,” stated Aubrey de Grey, CSO of SENS Research Foundation, which participated in the financing round. “A focus on small molecule screens will make pivotal contributions in the development of a broad range of therapies to repair the damage of aging – real rejuvenation biotechnology.”
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