" class="no-js "lang="en-US"> Ryne Biotechnology Awarded $4 Million Grant
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Ryne Biotechnology Awarded $4 Million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Ryne Biotechnology, a therapeutics company leveraging induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to discover and develop a platform of off-the-shelf neuron replacement therapies for neurological disorders, has announced that the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded the company a $4 million Clinical Stage Research Program (CLIN1) grant. This funding will enable the company to advance its lead candidate RNDP-001, an iPSC-derived dopamine neuron progenitor for the treatment of both inherited and idiopathic forms of Parkinson’s disease, through submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application within the next 12 months.

RNDP-001 has completed preclinical efficacy and safety studies. This CIRM award will allow Ryne Bio to finalize its IND-package including the production of GMP-grade materials to enable the evaluation of RNDP-001 in Phase 1 clinical trials for both inherited and idiopathic forms of Parkinson’s disease.

“We appreciate CIRM’s partnership in our vision to reverse degenerative conditions of the brain by developing off-the-shelf cell replacement therapies,” said Nick Manusos, Chief Executive Officer of Ryne Bio. “A dramatic shift in the standard of care for patients with neurodegenerative disease is long overdue. We are thrilled to be developing groundbreaking therapies for patients in need of better treatment options.”

Beyond RNDP-001, Ryne Bio is developing a platform of drug candidates, including next-generation, gene-modified programs that have the potential to modify and reverse disease progression in Parkinson’s disease and other moderate to severe central nervous system disorders.

“The underlying cause of Parkinson’s disease is progressive degeneration of a patient’s dopamine neurons. Ryne Bio is able to directly replace dopamine neurons that have been lost by utilizing precision manufacturing techniques,” said Howard Federoff, M.D., Ph.D., Ryne Bio’s Chief Medical Officer, scientific co-founder and Principal Investigator on the CLIN1 award.

In addition to the funding grant from CIRM, Ryne Biotechnology was launched and seeded in 2022 by Saisei Ventures, an emerging venture capital firm focused on building revolutionary advanced medicine companies. “The potential of off-the-shelf cell replacement therapies is on the cusp of being realized for complex and intractable disease,” said Jonathan Yeh, Managing Partner of Saisei Ventures. “This funding decision from CIRM provides robust validation of the Ryne Bio approach, and supports the delivery of this best-in-class therapy to patients.”

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