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Accelerator Corporation Announces Series A Financing in Rodeo Therapeutics to Focus on Small-Molecule Regenerative TherapiesAccelerator Corporation, a leading life science investment and management firm, today announced a $5.9 million Series A financing in Rodeo Therapeutics Corporation, a company developing small-molecule therapies designed to promote regeneration and repair of multiple tissue types. Investors participating in the financing include AbbVie Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, ARCH Venture Partners, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc., Watson Fund, L.P., WRF Capital and WuXi AppTec. "Tissue damage and degradation play critical roles in the development and progression of a broad array of disease indications, including a variety of inflammatory diseases," said Sanford Markowitz, M.D., Ph.D., the Markowitz-Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics and Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a founder of Rodeo Therapeutics. "The ability to stimulate the body's natural processes for tissue regeneration and repair has broad therapeutic potential in disease settings such as ulcerative colitis and in hemopoietic recovery following bone marrow transplantation. Rodeo Therapeutics is focused on developing small-molecule therapies that stimulate these processes and enable new approaches to address serious medical conditions that today have a substantial unmet medical need." "Rodeo Therapeutics' founding scientists have achieved a level of biology and medicinal chemistry for their lead product candidate that is advanced beyond what we would typically see in an academic setting," said David M. Schubert, chief operating officer of Accelerator Corporation. "We believe that this Series A investment will provide the financial resources to rapidly advance the company's development program toward human trials, which will open the door to an exciting new therapeutic approach that has significant clinical and commercial potential." Rodeo Therapeutics' scientific approach is based on research conducted by world-renowned scientists at Case Western Reserve University and the University o Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern). In addition to Dr. Markowitz, the company's founding scientists are Stanton Gerson, M.D., and Joseph Ready, Ph.D.
About Rodeo Therapeutics Rodeo Therapeutics is focused on developing small-molecule therapies that increase tissue levels of prostaglandin PGE2. Preclinical studies published in Science have shown that increasing PGE2 through inhibition of a prostaglandin-degrading enzyme (15-PGDH) accelerates hematopoietic stem cell reconstitution following bone marrow transplant, protects against colitis and promotes liver regeneration in a variety of animal models.1 The company will initially focus on developing 15-PGDH inhibitors for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and promoting blood cell reconstitution following bone marrow transplant. For more information please visit: www.rodeotherapeutics.com About Accelerator Corporation Accelerator Corporation, established in 2003 in Seattle, is a biotechnology investment and management company with operations in Seattle and New York City. Backed by a syndicate of top-tier venture capital investors and a world-class research institution, Accelerator identifies, evaluates, finances and manages the development of emerging biotechnology opportunities. Accelerator has built a unique solution that addresses many of the key problems associated with investing in early-stage biotechnology by providing access to venture capital, management, scientific expertise and facilities. Since its inception, Accelerator has raised more than $100 million in capital commitments to invest in innovative life science companies. Accelerator has assembled a team of talented professionals with deep investment, operational and scientific expertise to build high-quality life science startup companies and will continue to seek out the most exciting and potentially valuable emerging biotechnologies. 1 Zhang Y et al. Science. 2015;348(6240):aaa2340. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa2340
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