“As people live longer, improving quality of life is paramount,” said Alex Morgan, a partner at Khosla Ventures, who chipped in to fund Rubedo’s first round of venture capital financing. “Rubedo is targeting senescent, or aging, cells that drive age-related disease. This first trial can bring us another step closer to achieving better healthspan.”
Senescent cells age and permanently stop dividing, but they don’t die. Over time, they accumulate in the tissues and release high levels of inflammatory chemicals and immune modulators that contribute to aging.
Rubedo plans first to undertake Phase 1 studies to assess RLS-1469’s effectiveness in treating incurable inflammatory skin conditions, chronic atopic dermatitis and chronic psoriasis. Pre-clinical data showed that the drug significantly reduced senescent cells in the skin that drive these chronic degenerative conditions and it’s hoped that RLS-1469 will provide long-term relief to patients with them.
“Our mission is to invest in transformational companies that will change the world for the better, serving vast markets,” said Alice Newcombe Ellis, founding and general partner of Ahren Innovation Capital, another contributor. “We believe that Rubedo’s transformative approach to targeting senescent cells is an impressive step towards the development of chronic age-related therapies, which will advance biotech from treatment to prevention or disease reversal.”
Rubedo is also developing other therapies that selectively target senescent cells in pulmonary disease, filling an unmet medical need. Its team are very grateful for the support, financial and otherwise, that they’ve received from their backers.
“The significant experience and capital that our investors bring to Rubedo will help the company rapidly advance our programs,” said Ali Siam, chief business officer at Rubedo Life Sciences. “We look forward to working with these leaders, whose vast experience in clinical development will be invaluable as we enter the next phase of growth at Rubedo.”
Rubedo’s proprietary AI-augmented drug discovery platform, Alembic, identifies specific druggable targets for development into disease-modifying therapeutics.
Source: Business Wire
