Newly public Aligos will team with Merck & Co. on oligonucleotide therapies for NASH. Maze Therapeutics launches ophthalmology and CV-focused spinouts with Alloy and BridgeBio.

This Month's Profile Groups: Ocular Gene Therapy Sees The Light, features profiles of Avalanche Biotechnologies, Eyevensys, GenSight Biologics, and Hemera Biosciences; Smart Orthopedic Implants, feature profiles of OrthoData and Ortho-tag. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Colibri Heart Valve, Complix, Helmedix, Mapi Pharma, Mendor, Oligomerix, QuantuMDx, Silicon BioDevices, and Vigilant Biosciences.

Overactive membrane attack complex (MAC) in retinal host tissue may underlie the development of the drusen fatty deposits characteristic of dry age-related macular degeneration and the leaky vasculature in the wet form of AMD, which can eventually blot out central vision. Hemera Biosciences Inc. is developing a single-injection gene therapy with the potential to rebalance the complement system in the retina and induce lifetime protection against disease progression for both wet and dry forms of AMD.

Recent scientific advances and some initial biotech successes have spurred investors to look again at gene therapy, a space once given up for dead. Gene therapies seem particularly apt for ocular diseases, but the pathway to approval remains largely uncharted for young companies such as the four we profile in this issue: Avalanche Biotechnologies, Eyevensys, GenSight Biologics, and Hemera Biosciences.