Autifony Therapeutics Ltd., of Stevenage, U.K., said it received a new funding award of £895,000 (US$1.09 million) from the Biomedical Catalyst for initiation of a dementia research program. An investment of £400,000 from the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) will also be used to support the research. The company will use its expertise in the voltage-gated ion channel field to tackle a different subtype of potassium channel, which has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and potentially other dementias, through regulation of synapse function.

Peptimimesis SAS, Strasbourg, France, said that Cap Innov'Est, a regional seed fund, has released €0.7 million (US$0.74 million), the second tranche of its investment secured in 2016. This new investment will be complemented with non-dilutive funding to reach more than €1 million (US$1.05 million) to support its next development phase. The company is advancing a pipeline toward an HER2-candidate nomination for breast cancer-derived brain metastasis.