Armed with $193 million in combined series A and B rounds, Aera Therapeutics aims to address current challenges with delivering gene-based therapies via a self-assembling human-derived protein platform it has in-licensed from a well-known Harvard scientist’s lab.

For Aqemia SA, the year got off to a good start, as one of its pharma partners, Les Laboratoires Servier SAS, extended an existing collaboration to drug a supposedly undruggable immuno-oncology target, using its Launchpad artificial intelligence platform.

Transcend Therapeutics Inc. has closed on a series A funding of $40 million for its next-generation compound, methylone, an MDMA analogue, to be developed as a rapid-acting, disease-modifying, non-hallucinogenic treatment for neuropsychiatric conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

Resalis Therapeutics Srl closed a €10 million (US$10.6 million) seed round to progress toward the clinic a micro-RNA (miR) inhibitor in development for metabolic disease indications. Riccardo Panella, chief scientific officer and founder, identified the potential of a particular miR species, miR-22, as a target for metabolic syndrome while conducting studies on its potential role in oncology while at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

One of the most important transformations in the pharmaceutical industry over the next decade is the ability to modify genes or expression and go after any target, Cargene Biopharma Inc. CEO Kathy He told BioWorld, explaining that small molecules and large molecules can only go after 15% of the known targets. But the technology platform of short-interfering RNA (siRNA) opens a huge opportunity to make those inaccessible targets available, she said.

Fresh off an end-of-year IPO, Coya Therapeutics Inc. is gearing up for clinical testing with its lead Treg-enhancing biologic in neurodegenerative disease, aiming to build on a wealth of academic-generated data highlighting the potential of Treg therapy to attack the neuroinflammation underlying diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

Compared to the issues that come with, say, a failing liver, skin aging can look like more of a vanity problem. But aging in both tissues, and multiple others, is driven by the same underlying molecular mechanisms. One of those mechanisms is fibrosis, the cross-linking of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that leads to tissue stiffening. Anti-aging company Cambrian Biopharma Inc. has argued that stiffening of the ECM should be considered one of the formal hallmarks of aging.

TVM Capital Life Science has invested $25 million in Lamab Biologics Inc., which is taking forward a new twist on an old story in tackling allergic conditions. The asset-centric virtual company is developing a novel monoclonal antibody directed at immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, which are responsible for mediating allergic responses.

Turbine Ltd. began the new year with a partnership with Cancer Research Horizons, the innovation arm of Cancer Research UK, which will put its Simulatedcell computational biology platform to work on the vexed question of how best to position CDC7 inhibitors in cancer.

Could long non-coding RNAs be the key to developing organ-specific antifibrotic drugs that only mediate their effects in disease-related contexts? That’s the intriguing hypothesis that Haya Therapeutics SA has set out to explore, and its lead program, in heart failure caused by non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, is now in IND-enabling studies. A first clinical trial is pencilled in for late 2024 or early 2025.