Tenpoint Therapeutics has launched with a $70 million Series A financing to support development of a regenerative medicine platform for replacing cells damaged by age-related and inherited ocular diseases.
Let’s start with this new company.
Tenpoint is a biotechnology company focusing on advancing engineered cell-based therapies and in vivo programming for vision restoration in patients diagnosed with degenerative ocular disease.
The company was founded and based on research by global experts in regenerative medicine and ophthalmology from Moorfields Eye Hospital, University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology, Institut de la Vision in Paris, and the University of Washington.
Any notable names?
The company’s current CEO is Eddy Anglade, MD, previous vice president and late-stage clinical lead for retina at Janssen Pharmaceuticals Research and Development, US.
David Guyer, MD, will be the chairman of the Board of Directors; Dr. Guyer is also the co-founder, president, and current CEO of EyeBio as well as co-founder of Ophthotech (renamed IVERIC bio, in which he previously served as CEO and executive chairman).
See here for a rundown on all the experts.
Talk about that financing.
The funding round featured British Patient Capital (a new investor), F-Prime Capital and Sofinnova Partners (both founding investors of the company) as well as Qiming Venture Partners USA, Eight Roads, and UCL Technology, to name a few.
Now back to this research … what kind was it?
According to the company, engineered cell-based therapies were developed and translational research was performed in order to establish proof-of-concept.
And how is that being incorporated at Tenpoint?
Tenpoint is targeting new solutions for generating specialized ocular cell types using ex vivo and in vivo approaches.
Let’s talk ex vivo.
In ex vivo, pluripotent stem cells have the potential to differentiate into any cell type and, as a result, target specific ocular cell lineages and be administered to the eye in order to replace damaged or lost tissues.
With new research, the differentiation process can be reversed to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that can be differentiated into different cell types and potentially created “highly-specialized cells necessary for vision from iPSCs.”
What would this mean for ocular diseases?
According to the company, it could mean that there is potential for genetic modifications to these iPSCs that might improve the performance of such specialized cells.
This would occur following transplantation into the eye via advanced surgical techniques.
See here for more details.
How about in vivo?
This approach includes the ability to regenerate specialized neuronal ocular cells following injury by reprogramming other structural cells within the eye—and potentially generating multiple different neuronal ocular cell types.
Lastly … what’s the significance of this type of science?
According to Dr. Anglade, a number of new technological advancements in recent years have converged to make cell-based therapeutics an ideal modality that can be both clinically viable and scalable.
“We are focused exclusively on the eye and on harnessing recent advances in regenerative biology to advance our therapies as we work to change the future for people with vision loss by addressing its underlying causes,” he stated.