Figuring out if a person is affected by neurological diseases like major depressive disorder is challenging; knowing how to effectively treat those diseases can be even more difficult. An Albuquerque startup that's developing a way to diagnose and treat those types of diseases recently received an injection of money for its biotechnology.
That startup, Circular Genomics, reported an incremental raise of nearly $1.6 million in a March 9 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It's part of a $3.2 million offering the company first reported in December 2021.
Circular Genomics, which was founded in 2021, plans to use that money to further expand its research and development operations and grow its headcount, Paul Sargeant, the startup's president and CEO, told Albuquerque Business First.
Sargeant, who's worked at other bioscience companies including Minneapolis-based Medtronic and Santa Clara, California-based Rebus Biosystems, said that Circular Genomics currently has around 10 full- and part-time staff.
It uses lab and office space in The Bioscience Center, an Albuquerque incubator space for New Mexico startups. And Sargeant said that as the startup's headcount grows, Circular Genomics could move into its own lab space in the next year or two.
Its circular RNA biomarker technology originally came out of the University of New Mexico, Sargeant said. Using circular RNAs — which Sargeant said are more stable than other types of RNA — to diagnose and treat neurological diseases is "really an untapped area," he added.
"We really do not have precise personalized medicine and the correct tools to help diagnose mental issues, nor the correct tools to help direct therapy," Sargeant said. "So it's really virgin territory."
Sargeant said that the startup has exclusively licensed several patents from the University of New Mexico.
Circular Genomics plans to work with biopharma companies to help in clinical trials, he said. And ultimately, Sargeant said that he wants the startup to deliver services and products that aid in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders such as major depressive disorder, Alzheimer's and bipolar disorder.
"We're really going to be the first or one of the first companies that can bring further insights to understand what is happening neurologically through the use of this novel biomarker RNA," he said. "I think that's so needed in the world today."
