Two biotech companies, Chroma Medicine and Nvelop Therapeutics, have merged to form nChroma Bio, a new company that combines epigenetic editing capabilities with in vivo delivery technologies. Concurrent with the merger, nChroma also announced that it has raised $75 million in financing that provides additional capital which will be used to continue developing its lead therapy for liver disease. .

Chroma Medicine和Nvelop Therapeutics两家生物技术公司已经合并成立了nChroma Bio，这是一家将表观遗传编辑能力与体内递送技术相结合的新公司。。。

The financing round was led by Cormorant Asset Management, ARCH Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, and Newpath Partners. Other investors who participated in the round include 5AM Ventures, DCVC Bio, F-Prime Capital, GV (Google Ventures), Janus Henderson Investors, Mubadala Capital, Omega Funds, Sixth Street, Sofinnova Partners, T.

融资回合由Cormorant Asset Management、ARCH Venture Partners、Atlas Venture和Newpath Partners牵头。。

Rowe Price, Wellington Management, Alexandria Venture Investments, Casdin Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati..

Rowe Price、惠灵顿管理、亚历山大风险投资、Casdin Capital、Menlo Ventures和Wilson Sonsini Goodrich&Rosati。。

Jeff Walsh will serve as the CEO of the consolidated company while Jeff Marrazzo has been appointed chairman of the board. In addition, Melissa Bonner, PhD, will serve as CSO; Noah Goodman as chief business officer; and Padma Malyala as senior vice president for technology development. In addition, Jenny Marlowe, PhD, will be nChroma Bio’s chief development officer; and Lisa McGrath will be chief people officer.

杰夫·沃尔什（Jeff Walsh）将担任合并公司的首席执行官，杰夫·马拉佐（Jeff Marrazzo）被任命为董事会主席。此外，Melissa Bonner博士将担任CSO；诺亚·古德曼担任首席商务官；PadmaMalyala担任技术开发高级副总裁。此外，詹妮·马洛博士将担任nChroma Bio的首席开发官；丽莎·麦格拉斯将担任首席人事官。

Additionally, Catherine Stehman-Breen, Chroma Medicine’s CEO, will remain as an advisor to the company. .

此外，Chroma Medicine首席执行官凯瑟琳·斯特曼·布林（CatherineStehmanBreen）将继续担任该公司的顾问。。

Over the next few years, nChroma Bio will use the new funding plus existing funds from both companies to build a broad pipeline of epigenetic editors that target hepatic and extrahepatic diseases, as well as to develop programmable, non-viral vehicles for tissue-specific in vivo delivery beyond the liver.

在接下来的几年里，nChroma Bio将利用新的资金加上两家公司现有的资金，建立一个针对肝脏和肝外疾病的广泛的表观遗传编辑渠道，并开发可编程的非病毒载体，用于肝脏以外的组织特异性体内递送。

As part of their next steps, the consolidated company will continue making progress on CRMA-1001, a liver-targeted epigenetic editing therapy intended to treat chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis D that was initially developed at Chroma Medicine. In preclinical models, CRMA-1001 demonstrated durable silencing of HBV biomarkers, according to the company. .

。据该公司称，在临床前模型中，CRMA-1001证明了HBV生物标志物的持久沉默。。

In a conversation with GEN, CEO Walsh explained that the decision to merge the companies grew out of conversations about how best to make progress on developing novel gene-editing therapies. Bringing the technologies from both companies together means nChroma Bio has the capabilities in-house to develop potent cargo as well as high-capacity programmable delivery technologies for specific in vivo targeting.

在与GEN的对话中，首席执行官沃尔什解释说，合并两家公司的决定源于关于如何在开发新型基因编辑疗法方面取得最佳进展的对话。将两家公司的技术结合在一起意味着Nchoma Bio有能力在内部开发有效的货物以及用于特定体内靶向的高容量可编程递送技术。

“That’s really what we’re bringing together with this announcement,” he said. “[We are] joining forces under the new name to pioneer the next generation of genetic medicines.” .

他说：“这正是我们在宣布这一消息时所要做的。”。“[我们]以新的名字联合起来，开创下一代遗传药物。”。

Walsh also highlighted the merits of combining a cargo-oriented company with one focused on developing delivery vehicles. Boards at both companies were already discussing internally how best to move their technologies forward. For Nvelop, those conversations centered on identifying a proprietary cargo that could leverage their delivery system.

沃尔什还强调了将以货物为导向的公司与专注于开发运载工具的公司相结合的优点。两家公司的董事会已经在内部讨论如何最好地推进其技术。对于Nvelop来说，这些对话的重点是确定可以利用其交付系统的专有货物。

For Chroma Medicine, the goal was to access a delivery technology that would enable them to expand the reach of their editors beyond the liver. Also, “we have some common founders, common investors, and also some common board members,” Walsh said. “All of that allowed us to drive this in a way that just made sense.”.

对于Chroma Medicine来说，目标是获得一种交付技术，使他们能够将编辑的影响力扩展到肝脏之外。沃尔什说：“我们有一些共同的创始人、共同的投资者，还有一些共同的董事会成员。”。“所有这些都使我们能够以一种有意义的方式来推动这一进程。”。

Preclinical studies for CRMA-1001 are ongoing and nChroma Bio plans to submit a clinical trial application in 2025. They hope to begin dosing patients by 2026 and to have clinical biomarker readouts from the first Phase I cohorts that same year.

CRMA-1001的临床前研究正在进行中，nChroma Bio计划在2025年提交临床试验申请。他们希望到2026年开始给患者服用药物，并在同一年从第一阶段I队列中读出临床生物标志物。

The company is also making progress on the delivery technology that it will use for its therapies. Validation data from internal studies demonstrate its flexibility in terms of cargo capacity and that it can be programmed to target specific cells of interest. Their data also indicates that the vehicle can carry various editors including CRISPR-Cas9, base editors, and prime editors in addition to epigenetic editors. .

该公司在用于治疗的输送技术方面也取得了进展。来自内部研究的验证数据证明了其在货运能力方面的灵活性，并且可以对其进行编程以针对特定的目标细胞。他们的数据还表明，除了表观遗传编辑之外，该载体还可以携带各种编辑，包括CRISPR-Cas9，基础编辑和主要编辑。。

Commenting on the upcoming therapy, Marlow, nChroma’s new chief development officer, said that CRMA-1001 will address “the primary deficiencies” of standard treatments for chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis D as well as other treatments currently in clinical development. “What we’ve shown in our preclinical data with our epigenetic editor is that we are able to permanently suppress expression of viral antigens with this therapy,” she said.

。她说：“我们在表观遗传学编辑的临床前数据中显示，我们能够通过这种疗法永久抑制病毒抗原的表达。”。

“The other aspect is that we are able to do that without cutting the DNA. Those are really the two aspects that led us to take this as the lead asset for the platform.”.

“另一方面，我们能够在不切断DNA的情况下做到这一点。正是这两个方面促使我们将其作为平台的主要资产。”。

The combined company will operate out of what used to be Chroma Medicine’s offices in Boston. At this time, nChroma Bio is not disclosing which other targets it will pursue besides hepatitis infections.

合并后的公司将在以前位于波士顿的Chroma Medicine办事处运营。目前，nChroma Bio没有透露除肝炎感染外，它还将追求哪些其他目标。

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