Lucy Therapeutics, Inc. (LucyTx) secures $12.5million in additional funding led by existing investors Engine Ventures and Safar Partners with new participation from Bill Gates, Parkinson’s UK, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which provided a $2 million non-dilutive grant.
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The fresh capital brings LucyTx’s total funding to date to more than $36 million. The investments will further the company’s research programs for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and continue its development of a novel drug target for Rett syndrome.
Amy Ripka, Ph.D. founder and CEO of LucyTx said, “To make meaningful progress in developing treatments for complex diseases, we need to embrace non-traditional methods. LucyTx is doing just that, identifying new drug targets based on a deep understanding of the chemical and biological interplay at work in disease, and ultimately linking neurodegenerative disease to dysfunctional mitochondria,” “This latest funding will advance our work pioneering a new class of therapeutics designed to address mitochondrial dysfunction and provide potentially curative treatments for people suffering from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Rett syndrome.”
LucyTx is working to develop novel therapies based on mitochondrial small-molecule treatments and diagnostic biomarkers for complex neurological diseases. Rather than focusing exclusively on genetic factors, the company’s platform analyzes a wide range of disease drivers central to disease progression, including mitochondrial, environmental, and genetic factors.
By simultaneously evaluating these drivers, LucyTx’s platform creates a detailed knowledge map for the disease in question, which allows the company to uncover common underlying biological pathways that can be addressed by unique drug targets. LucyTx has built the team, assays and translational tools required to take two drug development projects from idea to in vivo proof-of-concept in key animal models in just three years.
About Lucy Therapeutics
Lucy Therapeutics is a private biotechnology company in Waltham, MA, founded by Amy Ripka, Ph.D., in 2017, dedicated to unraveling the complex and interrelated biological processes driving mitochondrial dysfunction and addressing them to slow and stop the diseases they cause.
Sitting at the center of genetics and metabolism, Lucy Therapeutics is leading the change in how we think about mitochondria and the intersecting pathways that play critical roles in human health and disease, particularly those of the central nervous system, including Parkinson’s disease and Rett syndrome.
