SENISCA secures additional £3.7 million financing to support rapid development of senotherapeutic platform to treat age-related disease
£3.7 million seed financing supported by consortium of new and existing investors will fund continued preclinical development of therapeutic pipeline programmes.
Exeter, UK — 18 March 2024: SENISCA, an award-winning biotechnology company developing RNA-based senotherapeutics to treat age-related disease, today announces it has raised an additional £3.7 million in funding. This comprises significant backing from SENISCA’s strong investor base, including Emerging Longevity Ventures, QantX, the R42 Group, Trend Investment Group and Apex Ventures, and investment from new funds including Lifespan Vision Ventures. In addition to the total investor capital raised of £7.1 million to date, SENISCA, through prestigious Innovate UK grants, awards, and commercial relationships, has also gained an additional £1.1 million in non-dilutive funding and commercial revenue, further validating the potential of the Company’s proprietary scientific approach.
SENISCA, a spinout from the University of Exeter, has developed proprietary technology that harnesses RNA biology to reprogram aged ‘senescent’ cells. Senescent cells behave differently to young, healthy cells in several ways, such as ceasing growth and secreting pro-inflammatory chemicals. Senescent cells, with a pro-inflammatory profile and disrupted function, are emerging as causal factors for multiple age-related diseases.
SENISCA has identified a novel and druggable component of the cellular senescence response, RNA splicing dysregulation, which can be specifically targeted in the context of multiple pharmacological and skin health indications.
The proceeds of SENISCA’s largest fundraise to date will support continued rapid company evolution and the preclinical development of the Company’s senotherapeutic programmes, that target the causes of age-related disease via RNA splicing regulation, resulting in cellular reprogramming and disease modification by attenuating senescence.
Dr Sarah Cole, CEO of SENISCA, commented: “This financing round represents another significant milestone for SENISCA. We’ve raised nearly double the previous rounds, enabling us to accelerate the development of our highly promising pipeline through preclinical stages and towards benefiting patients in the clinic. We thank our investors for their continued support and look forward to rapidly advancing towards our goal of becoming a world-leader in the development and use of senotherapeutics that target cellular ageing to treat complex disease.”
Allan Weiner, Investment Director, Emerging Longevity Ventures commented, “We are very excited to extend our investment in SENISCA and its ground-breaking technology. With exceptional foundational data, the Company has made significant progress since incorporation in the development of a novel and broadly applicable senotherapeutic platform that overcomes the limitations of other senescence-targeting approaches.”
Richard Haycock, CEO, QantX, said, “We are delighted to further invest in SENISCA, having been an early investor in the Company. SENISCA has undergone a significant and rapid development and QantX is looking forward to working with the team to realise the full potential of the Company’s disruptive senotherapeutic technology.”
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For more information
Sarah Cole
Chief Executive Officer, SENISCA
info@senisca.com
For media
ICR Consilium
Chris Welsh, Evi Useh
welsh@consilium-comms.com
About SENISCA
SENISCA is an award-winning, RNA therapeutics spinout from the University of Exeter. The Company is focused on modulating RNA biology to treat age-related disease. Underpinned by more than 15 years of world-leading research, SENISCA has identified a novel and druggable component of the cellular ageing (senescence) response, which can be specifically targeted in the context of multiple pharmacological and skin health indications.
SENISCA’s senotherapeutics specifically target the novel cellular pathway which causes cell reprogramming and positively impacts markers of disease modification in patient-derived models. In line with the rapid evolution of the company, R&D activities are focused on IND data generation.
SENISCA’s platform technology has broad applicability for multiple age-related diseases including those of the eyes, lungs, joints, and brain. For many such diseases, current treatments are palliative rather than curative, with varying success rates. These diseases represent a high unmet medical need, are amenable to a local route of therapeutic administration and are driven by senescence. Targeting these specific diseases will streamline progress towards the clinic by avoiding potential pitfalls of systemic delivery.
SENISCA’s novel senotherapeutics will be mined and commercialized through partnership or co-development models that will sit alongside internal programmes. If you would like to learn more about SENISCA, please contact Jennie Jepperson, Executive Assistant at SENISCA (Jennie.Jepperson@senisca.com).
