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New York and Copenhagen–based start-up HERVolution Therapeutics has raised $11.7 million in series A financing. The company is developing therapeutics that target human endogenous retroviruses, also known as HERVs, to treat cancer and diseases relating to aging.
HERVs are the genetic remnants of viral infections that happened to our ancestors millions of years ago. During these ancient infections, part of the virus integrated itself into our ancestors’ DNA and would express itself as a protein. Over years of evolution, those HERVs were epigenetically silenced. But they still exist in our DNA, and as we age, those HERVs can reactivate, leading to diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
HERVolution was founded by University of Copenhagen researcher Peter Holst to develop immunotherapies to target HERVs. Holst now serves as the firm’s chief science officer.
The firm’s CEO J. Robert Coleman, who joined HERVolution in Dec. 2023, explains that the viral envelope proteins that some HERVs express “have what’s called an immune suppressive domain,” which allows those HERV proteins to be invisible to the immune system. “The breakthrough with the team in Copenhagen is that they’ve redesigned the HERV to break this tolerance,” Coleman says.
HERVolution’s redesigned HERVs can be delivered via adenoviral virus–like particles or by mRNA in lipid nanoparticles. Once delivered and expressed, the antigens teach the body to recognize the HERV proteins that diseased cells express so that the immune system can target and kill those diseased cells.
The series A financing for HERVolution was raised with the help of the Serum Institute of India (SII) and the European Innovation Council. This financing has Coleman especially excited because SII manufactured the adenovirus vector–based AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and could help HERVolution quickly scale its adenovirus vector–based therapies.
According to Coleman, the company will use the new funding to get one of its two potential therapeutics through Phase 1 clinical trials. The company has already demonstrated strong results in nonhuman model systems, Coleman says.
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