Carolus Therapeutics Inc.
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Macrophage migration inhibiting factor (MIF) has been a target for drug developers for years because of its potential to fight inflammation in a variety of indications. To date, efforts targeting MIF have been largely unsuccessful perhaps because, as Carolus Therapeutics' scientific founders theorized, MIF activity is mediated through two chemokine receptors, CXCR2 and CXCR4. Carolus has developed peptides that selectively disrupt MIF binding to those receptors, It also has a therapeutic antibodies program for MIF. If successful, its compunds could find application in a range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, tissue transplant rejection, cancer, and a number of orphan indications
You may also be interested in...
Start-Up Previews (05/2009)
A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, "Medical Dermatology Gets Under VCs' Skin," features profiles of Garnet Biotherapeutics, Medimetriks and Topica Pharmaceuticals. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Carolus Therapeutics, Forma Therapeutics, NovaLign Orthopaedics, OmegaGenesis and PercSys.
Homology Medicines Inc.
Gene editing has made a great many headlines of late, and one could be forgiven for thinking the field was saturated, but Homology Medicines Inc. offers something new. Its platform relies on a different mechanism, known as homologous recombination, and the start-up's management team believes the approach can get around some of the potential limitations found in other gene-editing technologies.