The folk at Ichor Therapeutics are spinning off subsidiary companies at a fair pace, each devoted to either SENS rejuvenation biotechnology or life science infrastructure technologies: LysoClear; Antoxerene; Auctus Biologics; RecombiPure. At this point, the staff at Ichor Therapeutics are quietly turning their portion of Upstate New York into a biotech hub pretty much all by themselves. I'm doing my small part to help by situating Repair Biotechnologies right next door. This growth seems likely to continue, as there is no shortage of work to be done when it comes to realizing the SENS portfolio of rejuvenation therapies.

The latest funding round for this collection of companies, just closed, puts $1.5 million into Auctus Biologics, which is for now starting out with the aim of commercializing a most interesting infrastructure technology. But then Antoxerene also started out this way, and that company is now using their infrastructure technology to produce new senolytic drugs, a way to selectively remove senescent cells and thus turn back that contribution to aging. The Auctus Biologics platform initially offers the promise of being able to replace injections with pills for a range of therapies; if realized it will be a big deal for everyone in the industry who cares deeply about the logistics and cost of delivery therapies to patients.

Auctus Biologics, Inc., a new portfolio company of Ichor Therapeutics, Inc., announced today the closure of $1.5 million in seed funding. The company will develop RPtag, a hyper-stable antibody mimetic scaffold published earlier this year, to take on conventional clinical antibody therapy as an orally bioavailable formulation. New high priority immunosenescence and gastrointestinal targets will also be pursued. "Although there may be significant opportunities to develop this platform as an oral formulation to replace the need for conventional intravenous infusions, we are also very excited about the prospect of deploying this technology to modulate gut micro-flora and to go after other gut targets that may drive age-associated disease and related processes." "This program is a testament to the excellence of our research teams and their ability to identify unique value in all its manifestations. This technology was originally developed for protein expression applications. By following the data and affording the team an appropriate level of scientific freedom, we have created a robust therapeutic platform that can operate in environments where biologics are traditionally limited."

Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180921005524/en/Ichors-Auctus-Biologics-Closes-Quick-1.5MM