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news.Metabrain Research has signed an agreement with Medicxi, an European life sciences venture capital firm, for the inception of Kymo Therapeutics, incorporated in Cambridge (UK).
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Kymo Therapeutics’s ambition is to move forward Metabrain Research’s proprietary program on kynurenine metabolism (KMO) inhibitors towards clinical proof of concept, before seeking partners to complete development and ensure commercialization.
Medicxi has committed up to € 10 million to Kymo Therapeutics.
Valerie Autier, CEO of Metabrain and Board member of Kymo Therapeutics, said: “I am truly pleased about this agreement with Medicxi, a renowned investment firm dedicated to funding science-driven companies. It clearly validates our discovery model for early stage innovation, turning concepts into product development companies."
“We are very excited about the potential of our programs as we believe they open new perspectives in establishing the links between inflammatory mechanisms and metabolic disorders. It carries the promise of impacting on the pathophysiological process thus bringing new therapies for type 2 diabetes and adjacent diseases” added Dr. Autier.
Medicxi founding partner Michele Ollier said: “The kynurenine pathway, mostly known for the role of IDO/TDO in immuno-oncology, is emerging as an important pathway in immune inflammatory diseases.
"Metabrain Research’s work has identified and validated KMO as a potential major target in this pathway and the opportunity to develop KMO inhibitors as new therapeutic entities for metabolic diseases and beyond. Kymo was created as a single asset company, a model that we particularly like to pursue at Medicxi."
About kynurenine metabolism inhibitors
The kynurenine pathway leads to the production of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) from the degradation of tryptophan, an essential amino acid.
The kynurenine pathway is well balanced under physiological conditions but up-regulated during inflammation, leading to several diseases including diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, depression and cancer. Metabrain described recently the key role of this pathway in pancreatic dysfunction (Liu et al. 2015). Inhibiting kynurenine metaboli