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news.Radar Therapeutics has successfully completed an oversubscribed seed funding round, raising $13.4m for developing smart programmable medicines.
Radar Therapeutics team. Credit: Radar Therapeutics / Business Wire.
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NfX Bio led the financing which will bolster the company’s development of programmable ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based therapeutics utilising molecular RNA sensors for precise drug delivery.
The funding round attracted significant investment from key industry players, including Eli Lilly and Company, KdT Ventures and Biovision Ventures.
Contributions also came from PearVC, BEVC, and other investors.
The proceeds from this funding round will be channelled into advancing Radar’s internal programmes, expanding the team, and exploring potential partnerships.
Radar’s focus is on creating genetic and messenger RNA (mRNA)-based therapeutics that can be programmed to express specific payloads in response to cellular RNA levels, ensuring targeted and timed drug delivery.
RNA sensors are mRNAs that control their expression depending on other RNAs in the cell.
Radar’s platform stands out for its “smart” therapeutics, which are designed for precision and controlled translation.
This approach minimises systemic toxic side effects by ensuring that mRNA therapy is only activated in target cells.
The company’s methodology leverages endogenous enzymes to achieve high expression levels, marking a significant breakthrough in RNA editing technology.
Radar Therapeutics chief scientific officer and co-founder Eerik Kaseniit said: “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.”
