Progenitor Labs secures £4m in finance
To progress regenerative medicine platform
Progenitor Labs has raised £4m (US$5.8m) in seed financing from SR One’s UK Fund to further the discovery of small molecule drugs for a number of serious diseases.
Progenitor is a UK-based regenerative medicine company that develops drugs to regenerate specific tissues of the human body in response to injury, disease or ageing. The firm says development of small molecules in regenerative medicine has potential technical, commercial and regulatory advantages over cell therapies.
SR One is GlaxoSmithKline’s Corporate Venture Fund.
Progenitor uses CombiCult combinatorial stem cell technology to produce synthetic adult progenitor cells that resemble those lying dormant in a patient’s target tissue. Pharmaceutical drug screens can then be performed to discover compounds that instruct the progenitor cells to generate terminally differentiated cells, thereby restoring organ function. Whereas most currently available drugs treat the symptoms of illness, drugs that regenerate diseased organs will address the root cause of disease.
Progenitor will be based at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), the UK's first open innovation bioscience campus.
In addition to the financing, Progenitor has entered into an agreement with Scinovo, GSK’s scientific consultancy and technical support model, which includes access to GSK scientists with a proven track record of bringing compounds from discovery through to launch.
Dr Yen Choo, founder and CEO of Progenitor Labs, said: ‘We are delighted to have attracted top tier venture financing and to have put in place an R&D infrastructure capable of delivering drugs that have the potential to transform regenerative medicine and future healthcare.’
