Purespring Therapeutics

Founded: 2020
CEO: Richard Francis
Founders: Professor Moin Saleem Professor Mauro Giacca
% Shareholding: 84%
Stage: Pre-clinical
Raised in a Series A in November 2020: £45m

Unless stated all data at 31 December 2020

Purespring seeks to advance gene therapies for the treatment of chronic renal diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing treatments.

Purespring is one of the first AAV gene therapy companies focused on the kidney globally and will seek to treat a number of debilitating chronic diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing therapies. It has been founded around the seminal work of Professor Moin Saleem, Head of Bristol Renal where he heads a world leading group researching glomerular diseases.

Purespring has also established an in-vivo functional screening platform, FunSel, to initially screen for protective factors that could have applications across several kidney diseases. FunSel has been developed by Professor Mauro Giacca, a leader in gene therapy of cardiovascular disorders, and provides Purespring with a target discovery platform uniquely suited to systematically move gene therapy beyond monogenic disorders.

Investment opportunity

Opportunity to take a global lead in renal gene therapy

Unmet medical need

A number of chronic kidney diseases are poorly addressed by existing therapies, which are primarily based around the lowering of blood pressure and often progressing to dialysis and kidney transplantation.

Market opportunity

Opportunity encompasses rare monogenic diseases, as well as much more prevalent common forms of kidney disease.

Key risks

Highly innovative concept in emerging space

Research Pre-clinical Clinical

Purespring Therapeutics

Undisclosed programme
Undisclosed programme

Syncona team

Chris Hollowood

Chris is the Chief Investment Officer of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He has been instrumental in the foundation and development of Syncona's gene therapy strategy, where it has founded companies focused on the eye, the liver, the kidney, and central nervous system. He is Chairman of Freeline, Gyroscope, SwanBio and Purespring and was also previously Chairman of Nightstar, a retinal gene the…

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Position

Chair

Qualification

PhD

Alice Renard

Alice is a Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. She is also currently Head of Operations at Purespring Therapeutics andworks closely with Anaveon. Alice serves as an Observer on the Board of Purespring and Anaveon. Prior to joining Syncona, Alice was an Investment Banking Analyst within Barclays’ Healthcare Corporate Finance and M&A team, where she worked on transactions involving pha…

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Qualification

PhD

Dominic Schmidt

Dominic is a Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He is a a Director on the board of Anaveon, and Purespring Therapeutics. Prior to joining Syncona, Dominic worked in the life science practice of strategy consultancy L.E.K Consulting. He received his PhD from the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge where he was a Cancer Research UK scholar. He also holds a German Diplom…

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Position

Board member

Qualification

PhD