Seamless Therapeutics has received $12.5 million in seed funding to advance a revolutionary gene editing platform based on programmable precision designer recombinases.
Seamless Therapeutics, a TU Dresden spin-off, has received $12.5 million in seed funding to advance a revolutionary gene editing platform based on programmable precision designer recombinases.
With the help of a seed round co-led by Wellington Partners and Forbion and non-dilutive funding from the BMBF (GO-Bio funding), the proprietary platform and pipeline can mature in preparation for the first clinical evaluation.
The Technische Universität Dresden’s Seamless Therapeutics, a Dresden-based startup, today announced a $12.5 million (€11.8 million) seed financing round that will speed up the development of its designer recombinases, a cutting-edge gene editing platform that will revolutionise the treatment of serious diseases.
Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz, Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine and Head of Medical Systems Biology at the University Cancer Center of the Technische Universität Dresden, and his former PhD student Felix Lansing, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Seamless Therapeutics, were the scientific founders of the company. In the field of reprogrammable recombinases, both are pioneers.
The company’s proprietary technology will now be developed going forward by Dr. Felix Lansing. With the help of the company’s innovative recombinase platform, a well-known and trusted molecular biology tool can be programmed to unleash the full potential of gene editing and enable the targeting of any site in the genome.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF GO-Bio, 8B funding), a prestigious German government initiative supporting the most forward-thinking startups in the life sciences in Germany, provided non-dilutive funding for the seed round, which was jointly led by Wellington Partners and Forbion.
The newly established board of directors for the company will include members from both Wellington and Forbion. The funds from the round will be used to develop the company’s proprietary technology platform further, expand its presence in the EU and US, and develop a pipeline of therapeutic candidates that are ready for first-in-human testing.
“I am thrilled that we can now move our ground-breaking and promising technology from basic research to a potentially wide-ranging therapeutic application. This genome editing tool’s development will be advanced swiftly and purposefully thanks to the financial support from the BMBF and investors, according to Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz.
Felix Lansing, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Seamless Therapeutics, said: “Our modular platform has successfully reprogrammed site-specific recombinases to any given target sequence, effectively breaking the existing hurdles of leveraging this potential best-in-class gene editing system to treat human disease.
“I am looking forward to applying our in-depth understanding of recombinases to develop a pipeline of novel treatments with our founding investors and our highly skilled team,” says the team.
“Our objective is to use our extensive knowledge of recombinases to take advantage of their inherent advantages to correct genetic changes that lead to disease. We think our cutting-edge technology will enable us to break down the barriers currently associated with gene editing techniques,” co-founder and chief executive officer of Seamless Therapeutics, Anne-K. Heninger, PhD.
“We look forward to collaborating closely with Wellington and Forbion in our efforts to transform the gene editing landscape. Both are leaders in their fields and have extensive experience investing in biotech.”
“The promise of how precise gene editing will alter how we treat disease in the future has ushered in a new era in drug discovery. With its cutting-edge platform, Seamless Therapeutics can transform the long-established standard recombination technology into a versatile gene editing tool with unheard-of specificity. We are thrilled to assist Seamless Therapeutics in its efforts to establish itself as a leader in the quickly developing field of gene editing,” “added Wellington Partners’ managing partner Karl Nägler, PhD.
“Forbion’s guiding principle is to identify cutting-edge technologies at an early stage of development and to give founding teams the tools they need to realise the full potential of their ingenuity. The team has created a potent new platform that overcomes significant drawbacks of currently available gene editing tools, including CRISPR and prime and base editors, “Dmitrij Hristodorov, a partner at Forbion and a PhD, said.
By reprogramming site-specific recombinases to any given target sequence, Seamless Therapeutics’ platform has been successful in making a variety of precise changes, including inversion, excision, exchange, and insertion of small to larger DNA fragments.
Due to their limited ability to be programmed to act on new target sites, recombinases, a class of enzymes that have been used extensively in scientific research for decades to precisely alter the genome of model organisms, have not yet been used as therapeutics.
Through a ground-breaking strategy to safely and precisely restore health in patients with severe conditions, Seamless Therapeutics is altering the paradigm of gene editing. Our technological platform allows recombinases, a class of extremely adaptable enzymes, to be reprogrammed. To increase the therapeutic potential of gene editing, we are utilising our in-house expertise to create a pipeline of disease-modifying product candidates across a variety of indications.