Pharma, Startups

Startup raising $3M for drug approach that inhibits tau aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease

Protein misfolding – and resultant tau aggregation – has long been fingered as causative of […]

Protein misfolding – and resultant tau aggregation – has long been fingered as causative of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disease.

New York startup Oligomerix is addressing this issue with a host of drug development programs under its belt. It’s in the midst of a $3 million round; thus far, according to an SEC filing, $400,000 has been raised.

The company’s lead candidate is a small molecule drug that inhibits tau aggregation in Alzheimer’s patients. However, it’s still somewhat unfocused: According to Oligomerix’s site, it’s additionally working on immunotherapy approaches and seeking out biomarkers that target neurotoxic tau oligomers that stifle learning and memory in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disease. However, it says that four of its five programs have gotten funding from either the National Institutes of Health or the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation:

  • Small molecule inhibitors of tau oligomer formation (NIH, ADDF)
  • Tau oligomer specific antibody discovery and development (NIH)
  • In vivo tau oligomer mouse model for drug screening (ADDF)
  • Tau oligomer specific protease target
  • Tau Oligomer Biomarker Assays (NIH)

Founded in 2006, Oligomerix is located in the Audobon Biomedical Science and Technology Park at Columbia University Medical Center.

 

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