Backed by Atlas Venture, Lightstone Ventures and OrbiMed, Gemini has emerged with $42.5M in Series A funding and a focus on rare genetic diseases.
Backed by Atlas Venture, Lightstone Ventures and OrbiMed, Gemini Therapeutics has emerged with $42.5 million in Series A funding and a focus on rare genetic diseases.
Coming out of the gate, Gemini is focused on developing therapies for age-related macular degeneration. In its announcement this morning, Gemini said genetic research conducted over the past 10 years has uncovered genetic variants that can increase the risk of advanced AMD by “up to 20-fold,” as well as increasing the likelihood of systemic morbidities.
Gemini founder and chief executive officer James McLaughlin said the “time is right” to harness genetic insights into AMD. He said the company has the people and the technology who can lead the translational effort.
“To build our pipeline, we focused on patients first – particularly patients with a high genetic risk profile. We assessed the functional implications of their underlying mutations. We then matched each molecular abnormality with an appropriate therapeutic candidate: a recombinant protein, a monoclonal antibody or a gene therapy,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
In its coming-out announcement, Gemini did not provide much information on its platform, but noted that over the past 18 months the young company has advanced “multiple product candidates” through the R&D process. Gemini will pursue regulatory protein targets in the complementary system to help patients with a “spectrum of loss-of-function mutations which are closely linked to the risk of AMD and rare complement-mediated diseases.”
Gemini lists seven preclinical candidates on its website. Those candidates are focused on three particular genetic targets. The company did not indicate which types of AMD it was looking at, Wet AMD or Dry AMD. Its pipeline includes monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins and gene therapies, the company said.
“Gemini’s multimodal approach allows the company to pursue some of the most compelling targets in the complement system – regulatory proteins – and help patients with a spectrum of loss-of-function mutations which are closely linked to the risk of AMD and rare complement-mediated diseases,” Steve Squinto, a Gemini board member, said in a statement.
The company said it is benefitting from partnerships and exclusive technology licensing from multiple universities, including the University of Edenborough, the Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation in the Netherlands and partnerships with companies such as North Carolina-based StrideBio, Inc. StrideBio is developing adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector technologies for the treatment of rare diseases.
The company’s scientific founders include the University of Edinburgh’s Paul Barlow and Andy Herbert, as well as Tufts University’s Johanna Seddon.
