US-based neurodegenerative disease drug developer CuraSen Therapeutics has completed a $54.5m series A round featuring Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the strategic investment vehicle for medical product group Johnson & Johnson.
Venture capital firm New Leaf Venture Partners led the round, which included VC firms Longitude Capital, Alta Partners and Pappas Capital as well as funds managed by investment adviser Tekla Capital Management.
CuraSen is working on small-molecule therapies that will treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease by targeting a part of the brain that could mitigate symptoms such as cognitive and motor dysfunction.
The company’s technology is licensed from Stanford University and it stems from research conducted at the institution by professor of neuroscience and neurosurgery Mehrdad Shamloo, also a co-founder of the company.
Shamloo said: “We have demonstrated in a number of models of Alzheimer’s disease that restoring certain functionality in the brain results in a profound effect in this disease, including significant improvement in learning and memory with both acute and chronic treatment, significant reductions in amyloid plaque and tau pathology, and a significant reduction in inflammatory gene expression.”
