On December 16, 2020 The University System of Maryland (USM) Momentum Fund reported that it has invested $250K in miRecule, an emerging biotech company with a cutting-edge discovery platform to create RNA therapeutics alongside theFSHD Society as a co-investor (Press release, miRecule, DEC 16, 2020, View Source [SID1234574132]). This investment is complemented by recent funding raised over the past year, which includes lead investor Alexandria Venture Investments as well as Pathway Bioventures, Alumni Ventures Group, and angel investors. In total, miRecule’s seed round raised more than $3.5M in private seed funding. In addition to its private investments miRecule has also been awarded a non-dilutive $2M Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute.
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miRecule’s DREAmiRTM discovery platform was developed through more than a decade of research in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. DREAmiR analyzes genomic and outcome data from thousands of patients to identify the underlying genetic abnormalities causing a disease in an individual patient. The company then creates an RNA therapeutic to directly target and fix the abnormality. miRecule is applying this platform to a variety of diseases, developing lifesaving RNA therapeutics for cancer, muscular dystrophy, and even COVID-19.
"We are excited to add another therapeutic company to our investment portfolio. miRecule’s technology has the potential to be incredibly impactful for the health care industry and certainly for individual patients," said Claire Broido Johnson, managing director of the Momentum Fund. "In addition to an innovative product, miRecule has a strong management team and we have a lot of confidence in their ability."
miRecule was founded in Biohealth Innovation’s incubator in Montgomery County (Md.) by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anthony D. Saleh, PhD, and Chief Operating Officer Ashwin Kulkarni, MS, an alum of University of Maryland, College Park. The majority of miRecule’s seed round funding will be used to advance their lead program, MC-30, which addresses head and neck cancer, towards clinical development. Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer worldwide, and for many patients, survival is measured in months not years.
"We are hopeful that MC-30 will be a real game changer," said CEO Dr. Saleh. "By correcting the underlying mutations that make a patient resistant to treatment, we think we can triple response rates and give years of quality life back to many patients."