Mair Therapeutics Secures Pre-Seed Funding and Launches to Pioneer Therapies for Parkinson's Disease

NIJMEGEN, Netherlands, Feb. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Torrey Pines Investment, a specialty life-science investment company based in San Diego, CA, and Oost NL, a regional development agency supporting innovation-driven companies, announced the pre-seed funding and launch of Mair Therapeutics. Headquartered in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Mair Therapeutics is a biotechnology startup focused on developing transformative treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.

Mair Therapeutics brings together a team of entrepreneurs, researchers, and specialist investors to accelerate progress in therapies for Parkinson's disease. The company's platform is built on years of industrial experience in ion channel modulation. The company is dedicated to discovering compounds that regulate the lysosomal ion channel TMEM175, which controls lysosomal pH to maintain optimal conditions for degrading protein aggregates - hallmarks of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease is prevalent worldwide and continues to grow, partly due to an aging population but also because of the use of certain pesticides in food production. In 2024, the number of people diagnosed with Parkinson's is estimated to exceed 11 million, including approximately 63,500 in the Netherlands. Currently, there is no available treatment that cures the disease.

Mair Therapeutics wants to change that by focusing on the rapid identification and development of potential therapeutics using cutting-edge computational modeling and discovery technologies. This approach will be supported by the drug development expertise of Expert Systems accelerator, which incubated and developed the program ab initio.

"Parkinson's disease represents one of the greatest unmet medical challenges of our time," said Dr. Tudor Oprea, CEO of Expert Systems. "Combining artificial intelligence with human expertise could help identify disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson's. We are excited to see Mair Therapeutics committed to advancing groundbreaking technologies to address this pressing medical need."

Headquarters in Nijmegen

The company is establishing itself in Nijmegen, partly due to the presence of a strong knowledge cluster in the field of Parkinson's disease. Radboudumc hosts a Parkinson expertise center led by Prof. Dr. Bas Bloem. Additionally, Mair will collaborate with the lab of Dr. Marijn Kuijpers, the Kuijpers Lab (http://www.kuijperslab.com/), which is part of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior at Radboud University.

Björn Schaap, Investment Manager Health at Oost NL: "The combination of expertise and entrepreneurship, leveraging the latest techniques in R&D, with a focus on a very exciting target for the initial program makes a strong case for creating an impact in the field of Parkinson's."

About Torrey Pines Investment

Torrey Pines Investment, based in San Diego, CA, has focused on early to development-stage breakthrough medicines since 2002. Its therapeutic interests include oncology, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and more.

About Oost NL

Oost NL (East Netherlands Development Agency) is an agency that focuses its activities and projects on strengthening and stimulating the economy of the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, the Netherlands.

About Expert Systems

Expert Systems, an advanced accelerator platform, is equipped with a comprehensive, hybrid AI-based system that covers the entire spectrum of preclinical drug discovery and early development phases. Expert Systems has been pivotal in establishing Seed and Series A companies, organizing and managing over 30 research and development programs across various financial investors and strategic partners in North America, Europe, and Australia. To learn more visit www.expertsystems.inc.

Media Contact:
Vasily Kazey
CEO
info@mairtx.com

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SOURCE Mair Therapeutics