The latest investment, from a syndicate comprising the University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, Tin Alley Ventures and Brandon Capital, is a further boost for the company's mission to translate promising pre-clinical research into a real-life treatment.
Mirugen was incubated in the Cellular Reprogramming Unit at the Centre for Eye Research Australia and spun out into a separate company in 2022, after being selected to participate in the CUREator biotech incubator, a program funded by the Australian Federal government to help Australian biotech startups attract investment and accelerate the translation of research from lab to clinic.
The latest investment brings the total raised to more than AU$7M, adding on to funding from the non-dilutive capital from the CUREator incubator.
Critical seed funding
Mirugen co-founder and Medical Director Professor Keith Martin, who is also CERA's Managing Director, welcomed the latest investment.
"The latest funding round demonstrates the critical role of seed investors in supporting innovation in medical research and strengthening partnerships between industry and academic researchers."
He said partnering with industry was a key part of CERA's strategy to increase the impact of its research through innovation.
"We want to help our scientists move their research from the lab to the clinic where it can make a real difference for people with eye disease," he said.
Mirugen is the third start-up company founded at CERA, following on from the ophthalmic referral platform Oculo (2015) and Enlighten Imaging (2019), which is developing retinal hyperspectral imaging to detect and diagnose eye, brain and systemic diseases.
Dr Winnie Gao, Investment Associate for the University of Melbourne Genesis Pre-Seed Fund said: "The investment in Mirugen reflects our belief that world-class research moves faster through collaboration.
"By leveraging both capital and capability, we are hoping to facilitate the necessary support for Mirugen to scale and deliver its therapies to patients sooner.''
Reprogramming cells
Mirugen's technology aims to preserve vision, by using the regenerative power of the retina's own stem cells to prevent and reverse damage to the light-sensing photoreceptors in the back of the eye.
The treatment involves injecting engineered viruses into the eye to reprogram genes in retinal cells which will then stimulate the stem cells in the eye to transform into new photoreceptors that replace damaged cells.
The initial target for the new therapy will be the inherited retinal disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which affects more than 1.5 million people worldwide.
However, it could also benefit up to 190 million people living with other diseases caused by damage to photoreceptors such as age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt's disease.
Mirugen co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Associate Professor Raymond Wong, who is also Head of Cellular Reprogramming at CERA, said the technology builds on the Nobel Prize winning research by Japanese and American scientists around induced pluripotent stem cell technology, where mature, specialised cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body.
"Cellular reprogramming is a technology which allows you to control genes to determine how cells behave," Associate Professor Wong says.
"Mirugen's research is using cutting edge techniques to identify the optimum set of instructions known as transcription factors to ask one cell type in the eye to become another."
New Mirugen Executive Chair
In addition to announcing the latest investment, Mirugen has also appointed a new US-based Executive Chair Charlotte Casebourne Stock, an executive partner at Yarvie.
"Mirugen has the potential to become a pioneer for in vivo cell reprogramming,'' she said.
"I am delighted to join forces with the co-founders and investors for an exciting new chapter: delivering on proof of concept for our core technology, progressing towards investigation new drug enabling studies and building out a world-class leadership team.''
