Palo Alto biotech Gardedam Therapeutics is taking the crowdfunding route to raise $195,000 funding for its Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate. And it’s offering up perks like personal lab tours in Cambridge or Budapest, or the opportunity to rename a lead drug candidate to the donors that pony up more than $50,000.
Donors at the $10 level to this neurodegenerative disease-focused drugmaker, by contrast, get a “virtual hug.”
Crowdfunding – certainly an alternative funding route for the biotech set – has been slow-going for the startup, however, It has raised just $393 on IndieGoGo at the time this post was published. The campaign began Oct. 26 and will close Dec. 25.
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Gardedam targets the DJ-1 protein – whose loss and reduction in function has been linked to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke, COPD and type II diabetes. Stabilizing DJ-1 from protein misfolding could help protect from oxidative stress – a hallmark of neurodegenerative disease, the startup asserts.
Gardedam researchers say they’ve found a small molecule drug that interacts with DJ-1 that’s shown positive signs in super early clinical study. The company plans to use the funding to expand its in vitro work, and into in vivo models. Here’s how it plans to use the funds:
Thus far, the five-year-old biotech has been funded exclusively through grants from the government and orgs like the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
