BioCentury
ARTICLE | Financial News

5AM launches Expansion with $55.3M series A

January 3, 2018 1:18 PM UTC

Expansion Therapeutics Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) emerged from stealth on Wednesday with a $55.3 million series A round and a platform to discover small molecules that bind RNA targets. The round was co-led by 5AM Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Novartis Venture Fund and Sanofi Ventures. RA Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments also participated.

Expansion, which was incubated in 5AM's 4:59 Initiative and seeded by 5AM and Sanofi Ventures, will develop small molecules that target RNA repeat expansions using a suite of technologies developed over the past 12 years by Matthew Disney, a Scripps Research Institute professor and pioneer in the field. RNA repeat expansions are short, repeated segments of RNA that disrupt normal protein function and are responsible for rare genetic disorders including myotonic dystrophies and Huntington's disease (HD)...