Pharma, Startups

New anorexia treatment in the works? Cambridge startup gets $28.3M to develop biologics that restore homeostasis

Biologics are typically used as therapeutics, but a Cambridge startup is using precise protein chemistry […]

Biologics are typically used as therapeutics, but a Cambridge startup is using precise protein chemistry to move the field a little closer to the nutraceutical space. Pronutria‘s biologics are meant to restore the homeostatic balance of the body – treating conditions like, say, anorexia that throw the body’s resting state out of whack.

Looks like Pronutria, launched in 2010, just another large funding round – a regulatory filing says $28.3 million from five investors. In February 2014, it raised $12.25 million in a Series B.

Pronutria is led by Robert Connelly, a partner at Flagship Ventures – a primary backer of the startup.

Interestingly, it recently recruited Peter Mueller, the former Chief Scientific Officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, as its own head of R&D and CSO. Mueller led strategic oversight for Vertex’s cystic fibrosis drug, Kalydeco, as well as programs for hepatitis C, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, cancer and neurological diseases.

Pronutria is all about “unlocking the potential of homeostatic biology,” it says. Diseases disrupt homeostasis of the body, so Pronutria’s idea is to craft protein biologics that can restore balance in an offset system. It says it’s developed a proprietary library with more than a billion proteins – and has the tools to select, validate and express individual proteins with precise amino acid and biophysical profiles. Pronutria says on its website:

Using our first-in-class, proprietary platform, we identify and produce oral biologics that liberate precise, temporally controlled amino acid ratios to restore imbalances in amino acids that are at the heart of important diseases including  cancers, rare genetic diseases and disorders affecting the musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, neurological, metabolic and autoimmune systems. These powerful oral biologics elicit specific, beneficial physiological effects that restore cellular homeostasis and subsequently health.

Here’s what it says it’s aiming to treat, according to a recent announcement that it’s gotten several new patents: “Prevention of muscle loss in a wide class of sarcopenia and cachexia conditions including anorexia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and compositions comprising nutritive proteins having high solubility and digestibility, with desired ratios of leucine and other essential amino acids.”

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