Key points from article :
StarkAge Therapeutics received €2 million funding from the Deeptech program of the public investment bank Bpifrance.
Developing immunotherapies for age-related diseases by targeting cellular senescence.
Funding is awarded for StarkAge’s lead program to develop a therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
Other fibrotic and metabolic diseases are also under evaluation.
The €2 million in non-dilutive funding will be spread across four years.
Further increase in capital will likely be required to fully fund pre-clinical IPF program.
“This will help us move our research forward significantly,” - Thierry Mathieu, founder and president of StarkAge.
ExoCise is the proprietary platform that analyses extracellular vesicles (EVs) to identify biomarkers for senescent cells.
“Clinical trials with senolytics tested so far in human showed a lack of selectivity, a real weakness we hope to address with our immunotherapy approach,” - Pierre-Michel Bringer, CEO of StarkAge.
