On July 7, 2022 Kernal Biologics, Inc. (Kernal Bio) — a development-stage mRNA-technology company developing cancer therapeutics designed to improve patients’ survival rate and quality of life — reported the completion of a $25 million Series A financing led by Hummingbird Ventures. Amgen Ventures, HBM Genomics and Civilization Ventures along with other VCs, family offices and high net worth individuals also participated in the round (Press release, Kernal Biologics, JUL 7, 2022, View Source [SID1234616552]).
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The new capital will extend Kernal’s mRNA 2.0 platform and support the filing of an IND for Kernal’s immuno-oncology candidate KR-335. In connection with the financing, Firat Ileri, Managing Partner of Hummingbird Ventures joins the board.
"We have closely followed the work of the Kernal Bio team over the past few years and we are excited to see them bring their mRNA technology to fruition in an area of medicine with high unmet medical need," said Firat Ileri, Managing Partner of Hummingbird Ventures. "Kernal Bio is building on the success stories of Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech with legacy mRNA technologies. We are delighted to partner with them to bring this innovative approach to cancer patients."
"There’s a major unmet need to improve outcomes for cancer patients and Kernal Bio has built a strong rational for the use of its novel mRNA technology in cancer therapeutics," said Kernal Bio Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Yusuf Erkul, M.D. "This financing further validates that rational. Our breakthrough onco-selective mRNA approach can enable specific protein expression in malignant cells, widening the therapeutic window of mRNAs in oncology."
Additionally, Manfred Kraus Ph.D., who was previously the Scientific Senior Director at the Tumor Microenvironment Thematic Research Center at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), joins the company as Vice President of Research and Development. Before BMS, Dr. Kraus was a Director at Pfizer’s Oncology Research Unit where he led the in vivo pharmacology teams supporting the oncology portfolio from new target identification to clinical proof of concept. Previously, he worked in the oncology departments at Astra-Zeneca, Merck & Co., and Serono.
Dr. Kraus earned his Ph.D. in immunology with Dr. Klaus Rajewsky at the University of Cologne in Germany, followed by post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School investigating the role of B cell receptor signaling in mature B lymphocytes. His scientific accomplishments include the discovery of the tonic BCR-mediated survival signal in mature B cells. Dr. Kraus pushed our understanding of the role of ITAM and non-ITAM phosphorylation in the CD79a/b signaling subunit of the B cell receptor plus advanced and mentored technical innovation such as conditional gene-targeting, reversible RNAi in mice and multi-parametric flow cytometry. He is an author on 27 peer-reviewed articles and an inventor on four patents.
"We are thrilled to have Dr. Kraus join Kernal as he brings extensive drug development experience in oncology which will help us to expand our mRNA 2.0 platform and advance our lead program. Dr. Kraus will oversee the expansion of our R&D team as well as the advancement of our therapeutic programs into the clinic," said Burak Yilmaz, M.S., Co-founder and President of Kernal Bio.