BioWorld International Correspondent

DNage BV, a start-up focused on discovering drugs for diseases associated with aging raised €1.5 million in a seed funding round.

The company, a spinout from the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is using a collection of genetically defined mouse models with different DNA-repair defects to identify compounds, including molecules with a history of safe usage in man, that modulate the aging process.

"I think we have the only animal system that allows efficient screening of compounds that interfere with aging," said Rein Strijker, CEO and co-founder of Rotterdam-based DNage and former chief business officer at Pharming NV, of Leiden, the Netherlands. Its platform is based on the research of the company's scientific founders, Jan Hoeijmakers, Bert van der Horst, Wim Vermeulen and Roland Kanaar, all of whom are based at EMC.

Hoeijmakers, head of EMC's Institute of Genetics, was part of the team that cloned the first human DNA-repair gene in 1984. He is an internationally recognized authority on the functional genomics of DNA-repair pathways, and he has established the genetic basis of a number of conditions that are associated with defects in DNA repair.

Multiple DNA-repair mechanisms, including nucleotide excision repair and transcription-coupled repair, have evolved to enable cells to undo damage to DNA from environmental insults such as radiation and toxic radicals and from other sources. Defects in those systems are associated with premature aging disorders, such as Cockayne syndrome and xeroderma pigmentosum, and with commonly occurring diseases of aging, such as cancer and osteoporosis.

DNage has "dozens" of mouse models carrying different DNA-repair mutations, Strijker said, and it has obtained evidence in animal studies that a cocktail of antioxidant drugs administered to nursing mothers slowed the onset in offspring of one model syndrome by at least 40 percent. The company has filed patent applications on a number of proprietary targets, he said.

The company has not yet finalized its development programs, but it likely is to focus initially on Cockayne syndrome, an autosomal recessive disorder that results in photosensitivity, short stature, mental retardation, deafness, retinal degeneration and, usually, death in early adolescence. It also is examining osteoporosis and degenerative conditions of the eye, he said.

Although the company is just six months old, it could have its first program in the clinic by next year.

"The science has been going on for quite a while," Strijker said. That is one of the reasons the company sought a relatively small investment round at formation. It aims to hit initial milestones quickly before seeking more substantial funding. "The seed funding is largely coming from venture capitalists," he said. "That gives no guarantees, but at least a good feeling they will participate in the next round."

DNage's initial backers are Inventages Venture Capital, a Bahamas-based fund backed by Nestlé SA, of Vevey, Switzerland, and Life Sciences Partners, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.