According to VCBeat, Shanghai Bendao Gene Technology Co., Ltd. ("Bendao Gene") has announced the completion of a ￥10 million Pre-A round of financing, with participation from Keytone Ventures, a well-known high-tech venture capital fund. The proceeds will be used for the further development of pipelines in clinical stage, including BDmRNA and BDlenti.

Bendao Gene was founded in 2018 by front-line researchers of gene therapy in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, together with drug toxicology experts and industry experts. At present, the company has formed a core team of project research and development, pre-clinical, CMC and registration application. The construction of a 600-square-meter drug development center will soon be completed by Bendao Gene. The mission of Bendao Gene is to use "the best delivery technology to treat major diseases that were previously incurable".

Dr. Cai Yujia, co-founder of Bendao Gene, has been engaged in the research of virus carriers and gene editing and delivery technology in gene therapy for a long time, and is committed to giving patients with the achievements of gene therapy technology.

"The challenge of gene editing is delivery. The patented BDmRNA delivery technology of Bendao Gene improves the safety of gene editing for in vivo gene therapy," Dr. Cai Yujia said, "Significant progress has been made in the preclinical researches of multiple pipelines based on this technology. Animal studies of gene editing for viral keratitis (BD111) and macular disease (BD121) have been completed, demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of BDmRNA. We are methodically moving forward with the toxicology reviews needed for the clinical trials."

After the outbreak of COVID-19, the research team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, led by Dr. Cai, used virus-like particle (VLP) as mRNA delivery vectors, aiming at the disadvantages of traditional attenuated or inactivated vaccines, such as long development and production cycle, low success rate and high safety risk. They developed mRNA vaccine candidate against COVID-19, and published the animal data for the first time in the world, which attracted extensive attention from media and academic institutions at home and abroad, such as Dragon TV and Oxford University Immunology.

Founded in 2008, Keytone Ventures is a China-focused venture capital firm investing in transformative ideas for the increasingly interconnected global economy. The company looks to partner with entrepreneurs breaking ground in emerging industries with innovative technologies and business models.