Epigenic Therapeutics Co., Ltd., a Chinese biotech gene editing company, has secured $20 million in Series Angel and Pre-A funding.
The Series Pre-A funding came from investments by Morningside Venture Capital, Kingray Capital, Trinity Innovation Fund and TigerYeah Capital. Angel investor FountainBridge Capital is also participating.
The proceeds will be used to advance the company’s epigenetic editing in non-human primates, expand expertise and capabilities, and sponsor early-stage clinical investigations.
Epigenetic modification is a natural and heritable gene regulation mechanism in the human body without altering the underlying DNA sequence. The company said it aims to deliver medicine to target cells and tissues, and achieve potent and durable therapeutic impact.
“Epigenetic editing is an emerging and highly differentiated gene editing technology,” said Bob Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Epigenic Therapeutics.
“Along with our scientific co-founders and advisers, we are able to expand our understanding of precise regulation of epigenetic genome, and unlock its potential as medicine for many diseases. With the funding, we will continue expanding our team and capabilities, validate the technology platform in animal models, and accelerate our leading product from discovery to clinical development.”
“Epigenic Therapeutics is uniquely positioned in various gene editing therapy developers. We are thrilled to invest in Epigenic Therapeutics and we believe this company has solid foundation to further explore and develop precise genome medicine to benefit many patients,” said Michael Xue, managing director of Morningside Venture Capital.
About Epigenic Therapeutics’ technology platform
Epigenic Therapeutics’ technology platform employs its own artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to explore and obtain an optimized CRISPR-Cas component to regulate target gene(s) or govern the expression of one or multiple gene(s) at once without changing the sequence of the DNA.
The company said its platform is capable of overcoming the potential risk rising from DNA cleavage including but not limited to off-target effect, short half-life and challenging patient compliance issues. Epigenic Therapeutics said its platform delivers medicine to target cells and tissues ex vivo and in vivo in ocular, neurodegeneration, metabolic, and rare disease models.
About Epigenic Therapeutics
Epigenic Therapeutics is dedicated to developing next generation gene editing therapy utilizing regulation of the epigenetic genome for a variety of diseases. Founded in 2021 by scientists focused on discovering gene editing technologies and developing gene editing therapies, the company has multiple product candidates in the pipeline, including treatment for ocular, neurodegeneration, metabolic, and rare diseases.