Glucosepane crosslink breaker research graduates from top Yale lab into the biotech world
Kizoo Technology Capital leads seed round financing at Revel Pharmaceuticals
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW HAVEN/BERLIN, Jan. 21, 2020 — For the past 10 years, Yale Professors David Spiegel and Jason Crawford have been working on tools to enable the development of glucosepane-cleaving drugs. Kizoo Technology Capital investors say now is the time to advance this groundbreaking research toward the clinic and are leading funding of a new company, Revel Pharmaceuticals Inc., founded by Drs. David Spiegel, Jason Crawford, and Aaron Cravens.
Kizoo leads the seed financing round at Revel, with Oculus co-founder Michael Antonov participating. SENS Research Foundation provided funding to the YaleGlycoSENS group for several years.
Glucosepane Biology in relation to Aging and Disease
The long-lived collagen proteins that give structure to our arteries, skin, and other tissues are continuously exposed to blood sugar and other highly reactive molecules necessary for life. Occasionally, these sugar molecules will bind to collagen and form toxic crosslinks that alter the physical properties of tissues and cause inflammation. As a result, tissues slowly stiffen with aging, leading to rising systolic blood pressure, skin aging, kidney damage, and increased risk of stroke and other damage to the brain.
Perhaps the most important of these Advanced Glycation End-products (AGE) crosslinks is a molecule called glucosepane. Revel is developing therapeutics that can cleave glucosepane crosslinks thus maintaining and restoring the elasticity of blood vessels, skin, and other tissues, and preventing the terrible effects of their age-related stiffening.
Revel opens a new category in the SENS repair approach to aging
The Yale group’s first major milestone – the first complete synthesis of glucosepane – was highly recognized when published in Science. Since then progress has been rapid, with development of glucosepane binding antibodies and discovery of therapeutic enzyme candidates capable of breaking up glucosepane crosslinks. Revel will build upon this progress by advancing the first GlycoSENS therapeutics into the clinic.
“This is truly a first. We are proud to help Revel open an entirely new category in repairing a significant damage of aging – crosslinking of collagen. Glucosepane crosslinks may cause not only wrinkles on your face but also lead to age-related rising blood pressure and possibly stroke.” says Frank Schueler, Managing Director of Kizoo Technology Capital.
David Spiegel, MD, PhD, Professor of Chemistry at Yale University and Revel founder says: “We are delighted to join Kizoo in building a world-class team to advance crosslink-breaking therapeutics into the clinic. These first-in-class agents have enormous potential to help patients suffering from a wide range of diseases.“
“Collagen is the infrastructure of our bodies – in every tissue, supporting cellular function and health – but with aging, this critical molecular infrastructure accumulates damage. By clearing out this damage, we can restore tissue function and repair the body. Revel is one of only a few companies taking a repair-centric approach to treat diseases of aging and one day our AGE-cleaving therapeutics will undo this damage at the molecular level.” says Aaron Cravens, co-Founder of Revel Pharmaceuticals.
About Revel
Revel Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company located in San Francisco, CA. with a technology platform based on the work of Yale Professors David Spiegel and Jason Crawford. We are commercializing therapeutic designer enzymes to degrade molecular damage that accumulates with aging. By addressing one of the hallmarks of aging, Revel is strategically positioned to develop therapeutics for multiple diseases of aging including osteoarthritis, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, skin aging, and complications of diabetes.
See www.revelpharmaceuticals.
About Kizoo
Kizoo provides mentoring and seed and early-stage financing with a focus on rejuvenation biotechnology. Having been entrepreneurs, VCs, and mentors in both high-growth tech and biotech companies for many years, with multiple exits and massive value created for the founders, Kizoo now brings this experience to the emerging field of rejuvenation biotech – a young industry that will eventually become much bigger than today’s largest technology markets.
As part of the Forever Healthy Group, Kizoo directly supports the creation of startups turning research on the root causes of aging into therapies and services for human application. Investments include AgeX, FoxBio, Turn.bio, Elevian, Oisin Biotechnologies, Underdog Pharmaceuticals, MAIA Biotechnology, and others.
Forever Healthy’s other initiatives include the evaluation of new rejuvenation therapies, evidence-based curation of the world’s cutting-edge medical knowledge, funding research projects on the root causes of aging, and hosting the annual Undoing Aging Conference.
For more information, please visit kizoo.com and forever-
Contact:
Frank Schueler
Managing Director, Kizoo Technology Capital GmbH
Amalienbadstr. 41, 76227 Karlsruhe
fs@kizoo.com, +49 721 51600
