A biotechnology startup with ties to the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently closed on a $45 million Series A round of funding to create and develop a new class of therapies for patients with serious degenerative disorders.
The round for San Diego, California-based Design Therapeutics was led by Massachusetts-based venture firm SR One. Other investors participating in the round include Cormorant Asset Management, Quan Capital and WestRiver Group.
The technology created by the startup, which focuses on disorders caused by nucleotide repeat expansions, is licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, which is UW-Madison’s patent and licensing arm.
Design Therapeutics was co-founded by Pratik Shah and Aseem Ansari. Ansari was previously a faculty member at the UW, where he helped execute the license agreement with WARF.
“Significant industry advancements have led to the understanding of root causes of multiple nucleotide repeat disorders, however, there remain few to no therapeutic options that slow the progression or reverse the course of disease,” said Shah in a statement. “Our company was founded with a goal of designing a new class of small molecule therapies that address the core etiology of diseases to deliver a biological effect typically only seen with complex molecules. The collective insights of our team, along with our financial strength, position us to transition into a clinical stage company to explore the corrective benefit of our programs.”
