Medical research startup company at U. receives $75 million in funding

Ceptur Therapeutics, a research startup at Rutgers that targets defective RNA molecules, has developed unique technologies in the medical field and has raised $75 million in startup funding, according to a press release.

Samuel I. Gunderson, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, said that he started working on RNA research in the early 1990s as a part of his postdoctoral education in Germany.

He first worked on identifying different methods of RNA processing and later transitioned to identifying defective RNA. Many cancerous, muscular and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s disease and degenerative myelopathy, result from defective RNA, which in turn comes from defective genes, he said.

Specifically, genetic mutations in DNA are transcribed into defective RNA, which can then cause diseases, he said. Though, sometimes diseases are caused by defective proteins whereas others are caused by defective RNA.

“A defective gene will make a defective RNA, which means … that the defective RNA is making a defective protein,” Gunderson said. “The protein actually doesn’t really cause the disease, and it’s really the RNA that’s causing that disease."

Gunderson developed U1 adaptor technology, which consists of short synthetic strands of nucleic acid that targets RNA from a specific gene in order to silence defective genes that could potentially cause diseases, according to the release.

While other gene-silencing technologies do exist, this method is unique in that it can target specific tissues and organs while preserving the rest of the cell’s RNA. In addition, U1 adaptors bind defective genes and thus prevent RNA from being transcribed, which does not require the use of a human enzyme.

Gunderson used his research to create SilaGene, which helped finalize the U1 adaptor technology. The company has since been renamed as Ceptur Therapeutics, according to the release.

The startup received financial help from Innovation Ventures, a Rutgers research team, which aided them in creating SilaGene and licensing the necessary technology toward the research, according to the release. 

Gunderson said Innovation Ventures played a key role in funding the research that went into SilaGene. 

Tatiana Litvin-Vechnyak, associate vice president of Innovation Ventures, said Gunderson’s research and technology he developed with Goraczniak was crucial in developing the scientific community’s understanding of genetics and genomics, according to the release.

“Besides its broad-reaching implications to science and medicine, the commercialization possibilities of the research were apparent to us immediately,” Litvin-Vechnyak said. “It is no surprise that this cutting-edge research created not one but two startups, and Innovation Ventures is proud to have played its part in getting this innovation closer to impacting the world in a positive way.”

Michael E. Zwick, senior vice president for research at Rutgers, said that Gunderson’s dedication to research will contribute to similar innovations in the future, according to the release. 

“Gunderson was ahead of his time in recognizing the importance of better understanding RNA and how it is involved with so many aspects of our lives,” Zwick said. “To see how far his research and technology have come is a testament to his perseverance and hard work.”