Key points from article :
The world is full of animals that undergo extreme biological adaptations to survive.
Some small hibernating mammals survive 25 heart attacks every year and live up to two-times longer than other animals their size.
Fauna Bio is on a mission to understand these protective physiological mechanisms to develop novel human treatments.
Developed a platform that discovers therapeutic targets from animal biobank samples.
“Species have evolved ways to repair tissues in a really robust way, and that ends up cutting across many different disease areas,” - Ashley Zehnder, CEO of Fauna Bio.
Fauna explored cardioprotective qualities seen in small hibernating animals.
“We found four wholly novel genetic targets, and showed in rodent studies that we’re almost able to fully protect those hearts against heart attack,” - Zehnder.
Raised $4.1 million in seed funding in 2019, and is now in the process to expand its platform.
“We can take animal genomic data and predict drugs and targets that actually work,” - Zehnder.
