Radar Therapeutics, a biotech company developing smart programmable medicines, announced the completion of an oversubscribed $13.4 million in seed financing led by NfX Bio. Major investors Eli Lilly and Company, Biovision Ventures, and KdT Ventures also joined the round, with participation from PearVC, BEVC, and other investors. The funding will support the advancement of Radar’s internal programs, team expansion, and partnering.
Current genetic medicines, including mRNA therapeutics, are not targeted and typically rely on cell surface proteins to confer targeting, which limits their application. This usually means that ex vivo cell therapies, where genetic material is introduced outside of the body, have to be used.
Radar is developing programmable genetic and mRNA-based therapeutics utilizing RNA sensors (mRNAs that gate their expression based on other RNAs in the cell) for specific payload expression to deliver targeted, timed delivery of the drug payload into the right cells at the right time. The controlled translation of the mRNA therapy avoids systemic toxic side-effects in non-target cells. And the RADAR platform enables “smart” rationally designed precision therapeutics.
Radar Therapeutics is advancing the technology even further by developing a proprietary methodology that only uses endogenous enzymes to achieve high expression levels, which is a significant advancement in the field of RNA editing, as it will potentially enable the development of safer, more effective, and cost-efficient therapies for various diseases.
The company’s scientific advisory board includes Xiaojing Gao, Ph.D., Co-Founder, James J. Collins, Ph.D., Co-Founder, David Schaffer, PhD., Eric Klein, M.D., and Svetlana Lucas, PhD. And Radar has received a number of industry awards including: Abbvie Golden Ticket, J&J West Coast Cell and Gene Therapy Symposium “Judge’s Choice” award, and an Amgen Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Award.
KEY QUOTES:
“With Radar’s technology, we can now precisely alter the biology of the cell, delete harmful cells, or potentially reprogram cells for autoimmune diseases. This has the potential to enable a new generation of safer, more durable and effective mRNA therapeutics for applications beyond vaccines.”
– Synthetic biology pioneer Jim Collins, Ph.D., Co-Founder at Radar Therapeutics and the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT
“Creating genetic expression-regulation systems that operate at the level of translation while being programmable to ensure compatibility with next-generation mRNA-based medicines has been a long-lived dream.”
– Xiaojing Gao, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford and Radar Co-Founder
“Like a safety switch, our payload is always off, and only gets turned on in the right cell. We can selectively write a function into any cell type. Programmable mRNA-based therapies have the potential to be in vivo, scalable and modular, to improve patient access. We’re thrilled to have the support of these top-tier investors as we advance our preclinical programs.”
– Sophia Lugo, CEO & Co-Founder, Radar Therapeutics
“Unlike approaches using microRNAs to turn payload expression off in predefined cells, Radar’s technology enables the activation of protein expression in desired cells. We’re leveraging the explosion in single-cell transcriptomic data, and advances in our understanding of RNA-editing enzymes such as ADAR, to design simple switches to create smart mRNA therapies. We’ve assembled a world class team to push the platform towards product and are excited to use these funds to grow the team further.”
– Eerik Kaseniit, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder, Radar Therapeutics
“Radar’s focus on full transcriptomic analysis sets them apart from traditional targeting methods that rely solely on cell surface markers. By leveraging a broad dataset offered by single-cell transcriptomics, Radar can precisely identify cellular signatures and engineer programmable therapies accordingly, offering unparalleled specificity to avoid off-target effects.”
– Omri Drory, PhD, Partner, NfX Ventures
