AcuraStem Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Sam Alworth, has been invited to present at Translational Solutions’ Virtual Investor and Innovator Conference on Accelerating Innovations and Investments in Rare and Orphan Diseases, presented in partnership with the Keiretsu Forum Canada and Episome and held virtually on Thursday, June 25, 2020. The invitation to present at the conference was extended to AcuraStem in the wake of closing its seed round November 2019 which was co-led by the Midwest Chapter of the Keiretsu Forum and Viva BioInnovator. To date AcuraStem has raised over $7M to advance its research in a mix of private equity investment and non-dilutive funds.
Alworth will be presenting on how AcuraStem uses its patient-based approach and iNeuroRx® technology platform to discover and advance novel and potentially transformative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Alworth will give an update on AcuraStem’s lead AS-1 program for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which is targeted to enter clinical trials in 2021.
AcuraStem’s patient-based approach studies neurons derived from patients, alongside their genetic and clinical data, to discover and advance treatments for disease. Rather than the traditional approach using engineered animal or immortalized cell line derived models to study disease, AcuraStem is confident that the patient-based approach will be more likely to result in treatments that work for human patients. The iNeuroRx® platform combines AI-driven functional experiments in patient neurons with patient genetics and clinical data to discover, prioritize and advance novel treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.
The Virtual Investor and Innovator Conference on Accelerating Innovations and Investments in Rare and Orphan Diseases will feature thought leaders, innovators, and industry pioneers as well as selected companies from the Keiretsu Global Network currently raising capital and seeking strategic collaborations. The conference will also include clinicians, researchers and patients who will be attending virtually from around the globe.
About AcuraStem
AcuraStem is a California-based biotechnology company utilizing a proprietary patient-based drug discovery approach to develop and rapidly advance novel treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. AcuraStem's iNeuroRx® technology platform generates disease relevant neurons from patients for drug discovery and drug candidate optimization. Together with patient genetics and clinical data, iNeuroRx® provides the identification of broadly effective targets in heterogeneous diseases with poorly understood etiology (i.e., sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS).
Candidates from AcuraStem's lead AS-1 program effectively clear pathological protein aggregates and improve motor function in preclinical models of ALS, and are targeted to enter clinical trials in 2021. AcuraStem's second program addresses a highly novel therapeutic target, that also promises to be effective in ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Sam Alworth
