Strand Therapeutics Secures $6M Seed Funding to Advance World’s First Smart Gene-Programmable mRNA Therapies

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) has learned that on June 4, biotechnology company Strand Therapeutics announced the completion of a $6 million seed funding round. The round was led by Playground Global, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments, ANRI, and several private investors. The proceeds will be used to expand Strand Therapeutics’ pipeline of engineered gene therapies and further develop its synthetic biology platform.

Strand Therapeutics is a biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in the development of synthetic biology-powered gene therapies. Strand Therapeutics is the only company globally that precisely controls gene expression and delivers truly revolutionary immunotherapies by building an mRNA gene programming language.

Strand Therapeutics was co-founded by bioengineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including Scientific Co-Founder Professor Ron Weiss and immunology and biomaterials researcher Dr. Darrell J. Irvine. Co-founder Jacob Becraft serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Building on technologies developed by MIT bioengineers, the company has applied synthetic biology to the emerging field of mRNA therapeutics. This has enabled them to establish a proprietary mRNA “programming language” and develop the world’s first smart mRNA therapy.

Strand Therapeutics’ mRNA programming technology makes mRNA therapies safer and more effective by using mRNA-encoded logic circuits to program the location, timing, and intensity of therapeutic protein expression in patients. These circuits can achieve cell-type-specific expression by detecting and classifying unique miRNA expression signatures of cells, or control protein expression levels in response to exogenous small molecules.

Dr. Jacob Becraft, Co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics, said, “This funding will help us expand our scientific team, thereby enabling us to better build and scale our mRNA programming technology, which in turn will bring our immunotherapies closer to delivering therapeutic benefits for patients.”

“Strand’s mRNA synthetic biology platform is programmable, enabling it to kill cancer cells even in cases where tumors have developed drug resistance,” said Dr. Chris Otey, Senior Vice President of Science and Technology at Alexandria Venture Investments. “We are excited to support Strand and work closely with its team to deliver highly impactful therapies to patients.”

Jory Bell, a partner at Playground Global, said, “Strand Therapeutics has a unique and promising synthetic biology platform, and we are excited to collaborate with this outstanding company.”

Playground Global: Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Playground Global is an early-stage venture capital firm managing $850 million.

Alexandria Venture Investments, established in 1996, is the strategic venture capital arm of Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Alexandria Venture Investments focuses on breakthrough discoveries in biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, research tools, and agricultural technology. It provides long-term strategic investment capital to innovative life science and technology entities developing disruptive technologies and therapies, with the aim of advancing human health by curing diseases and improving nutrition.

ANRI is a leading early-stage venture capital firm founded in Tokyo, Japan, in 2012. ANRI invests in a wide range of disruptive ideas and technologies, from consumer services to biotechnology. ANRI has provided funding to over 100 companies, including Raksul, UUUM, and Mirrativ.

(Compiled by Li Chengping)