Fauna Bio Raises $9 Million Seed Round

<p><strong><span class&equals;"xn-location">EMERYVILLE<&sol;span> <&sol;strong>&&num;8212&semi; <u>Fauna Bio<&sol;u>&comma; a biotechnology company leveraging animal genomics to improve human health&comma; has raised <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;9 million<&sol;span> in Seed funding led by LifeForce Capital&comma; with participation from True Ventures&comma; Boom Capital&comma; Pacific 8 Ventures&comma; BioMed Ventures&comma; Vibe Capital and Arcadia Science&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fauna Bio said it will use the new funds to expand its drug discovery platform Convergence while accelerating the discovery of new therapeutic targets for human diseases across a broad range of indications&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fauna Bio harnesses the power of comparative and functional genomics to find better therapies for human disease&comma; including neurologic&comma; metabolic&comma; fibrotic&comma; and cardiovascular disorders&period; The initial version of Convergence uses gene expression data from hibernating mammals due to their extreme biology and their remarkable ability to reverse disease-causing traits&period; The platform has so far identified two compounds and four novel genetic targets currently undergoing evaluation for heart disease and related disorders&period; The company also collaborates with Novo Nordisk on a target discovery program for obesity&period; Additionally&comma; Fauna Bio has identified seven novel genetic targets to reduce fibrosis&comma; which is a core component of many chronic and debilitating diseases&comma; including NASH and cardiovascular disease secondary to chronic kidney disease and diabetic cardiomyopathy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Studying human biology and genetics alone has still left us with many unanswered questions&comma; gaps in knowledge&comma; and without treatments to many serious diseases that could be aided by looking outside our own species&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Ashley Zehnder<&sol;span>&comma; DVM&comma; Ph&period;D&period;&comma; CEO of Fauna Bio&period; &&num;8220&semi;Through millions of years of evolution&comma; animals have developed ways to naturally resist and heal from a range of conditions that still plague humans&period; We are using these natural synergies between us and other mammals to improve health and wellness and&comma; ultimately&comma; longevity in humans&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As the company advances its internal pipeline towards clinical testing&comma; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Bryan Burkey<&sol;span>&comma; Ph&period;D&period;&comma; has joined Fauna Bio as Head of Therapeutics Discovery&period; Dr&period; Burkey is an experienced drug discovery and development professional who has led and contributed&comma; to efforts ranging from target discovery to NDA filing&period; He led biology and translational pharmacology efforts for 23 years at Novartis Research&comma; in addition to five years at Zafgen&comma; Inc&period;&comma; and most recently was the Head of Systems Biology at Walden Biosciences&period; Over his career&comma; he developed expertise in metabolic and cardiovascular pharmacology as well as safety assessment&period; Bryan excels at integrating information across in vitro target&sol;pathway to in vivo physiology&sol;pharmacology to enable better drug development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new investors in this funding round bring biotechnology and computational expertise to aid Fauna Bio&&num;8217&semi;s development and expansion into new disease areas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span id&equals;"spanHghlt07a5">&&num;8220&semi;<&sol;span>Lifeforce Capital invests in companies that are creating new ways to solve the biggest problems in healthcare&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">John Noonan<&sol;span>&comma; Managing Partner of LifeForce Capital&period; &&num;8220&semi;The all-female co-founding team at Fauna Bio exemplifies the cross-discipline collaboration the field of medicine needs to foster innovation and achieve real progress in discovering new ways to treat serious diseases&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;