A newly formed biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, USA, has ensured funds for unlocking research of the therapeutic potential of Wnt signaling, a key for stem-cell maintenance and tissue regeneration.
The company, led by a venture capital firm The Column Group, has closed a $33 million Serias A financing, the company said on Wednesday.
Tim Kutzkey, Ph.D., acting CEO of Surrozen and managing partner of The Column Group said that because of Wnt proteins’ poor solubility, they have never been successfully advanced as therapeutics. “Technology developed in the lab of Dr. Chris Garcia, co-founder of Surrozen, has overcome this previously insurmountable hurdle, enabling the generation of active Wnt ‘surrogates’ with attractive, drug-like properties,” Kutzkey said.
Surrozen’s founders include world leaders in the scientific research community and bring complementary expertise in Wnt biology, protein engineering, and stem cells. They are:
“Wnt pathway activation has been a biochemical puzzle for decades. Our technology opens the door to address fundamental biological and therapeutic questions in tissue repair for the first time,” Dr. Garcia said. “I am confident that our team’s deep expertise in many complementary areas will drive these important scientific advances into useful drugs.”
“There is perhaps no field within human biology that has more exciting and untapped potential than Wnt signaling,” said Chief Scientific Officer Wen-Chen Yeh, formerly the scientific executive director at Amgen. “Surrozen’s foundational technology has the potential to generate a broad pipeline of Wnt pathway agonists that elicit tissue regeneration for a diverse array of conditions with great medical need. Our vision includes gaining a comprehensive understanding of tissue-specific mechanisms guiding the repair process, including the timing of the response and other signals that may be involved.”