NEW YORK — Matter Bio, a human longevity-focused startup, said Wednesday that it has raised $7 million in seed funding.
The financing was led by Lifespan Vision Ventures with participation from QuadraScope Ventures and unnamed investors. The Brooklyn-based company said it also has grant support from the National Institutes of Health.
Matter Bio is a holding company for three biotechs: MutagenTech, which is investigating the role of somatic mutations and structural variants in disease; Loki Therapeutics, a clinical-stage firm developing cancer immunotherapies; and Spellcheck Bio, which is developing a precision DNA-editing technology.
Among Matter Bio's cofounders are CEO Chris Bradley, Sam Sharifi, and Harvard University scientist and Spellcheck Bio Cofounder George Church. The company's founders also include MutagenTech Cofounders Jan Vijg and Alex Maslov, and Loki Therapeutics Cofounder and CSO Claudia Gravekamp — all of whom are also researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Bradley and Sharifi are also listed as cofounders of MutagenTech and Loki Therapeutics.
Matter Bio said it is using these companies' technologies to develop a therapeutic approach that detects and identifies mutations, structural variations, epigenetic drift, and other forms of DNA damage that have been incorporated into the genome and contribute to aging. It then corrects this damage, replacing it with the original genetic information, while cells that are too damaged to be repaired are eliminated.
Matter Bio said it will use the seed money to continue its research and initiate a Phase I/IIa clinical trial in solid cancer.
"Genomic integrity is a cornerstone of longevity and health span extension," Church said in a statement. "Matter Bio is pioneering a crucial approach in the fight against aging by focusing on the preservation of our genetic blueprint."