Sania Therapeutics was launched to treat neural circuit dysfunction
Sania Therapeutics, which develops genetic drugs for neural circuit dysfunction, has been unveiled with the launch of its platform at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) conference.
Sania Therapeutics’ approach incorporates the evolution of adeno-associated viruses (AAV) in human neural circuits, basic components of the nervous system, and conditionally activated ion channels. The company says this means breakthrough efficacy by correcting dysfunctional nerve excitation, thereby unlocking a wide range of diseases both within and beyond neurology.
The company’s technology platform was first developed at University College London by the co-founder of Sania Therapeutics. This launch follows the closing of an oversubscribed series initial financing, the proceeds of which have been used towards developing the platform, advancing the main program in motor impairments, as well as initiating an undisclosed additional program that enhances the capabilities of the platform.
“We founded Sania with a simple yet powerful vision: to be the first to develop drugs that selectively treat neural circuit disorders. Today, we are excited to demonstrate proof-of-principle data and introduce our platform,” said Andy Murray, CEO and co-founder of Sania Therapeutics.
Sania Therapeutics seeks human-centred delivery of tunable genetic neuromodulation
Sania Therapeutics launches its patented core technology platform and proof-of-principle data in ASGCT. The platform enables precise delivery of proteins for neuromodulation to selected individual neural circuits.
Human-centric precision delivery is enabled by Sania Therapeutics’ R-Scan platform, which utilizes the combination of microfluids with diverse populations of human induced pluripotent stem cells to recreate human neural circuits in a dish. This allows for the directed evolution of a human-centric AAV. The proof-of-concept data presented for the R-Scan was generated in fully functional human motor neuron-muscle circuits. R-Scan is equipped with a second platform, Gre-Scan, a new and exclusive technology for high-throughput screening of gene regulatory elements.
This platform is coupled with Neu-Scan, which facilitates tunable genetic neuromodulation through testing and validation of overexpression of conditionally activated ion channels. The proof-of-concept data presented shows that the platform has identified ion channels, which can be delivered by AAV, that enable the treatment of dysfunctional nerve excitation, the company said.
