▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
On January 10, 2022, Maze Therapeutics announced the completion of a $190 million financing round. The funds from this financing will be used to advance the company's nine precision drug programs for human genetics-validated targets to treat rare and common diseases. Three of the pilot R&D projects are MZE001 for the treatment of Pompe disease, APOL1 for the treatment of chronic kidney disease, and ATXN2 for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The Company expects MZE001 to enter clinical practice in the first half of 2022. In addition, the funding will be used to further expand the company's end-to-end platform, Maze Compass, to leverage genetics, genomics and data science to accelerate drug discovery by focusing on insights found in natural variants, developing innovative small molecule and biologic therapies for patients with disease.
Maze uses naturally occurring genetic variants and large-scale genetic screening to discover genetic variants that prevent disease and develop therapies based on the function of these genes. The natural diversity in human genes may increase and may also reduce the risk of specific diseases. For example, people carrying the APOE4 allele have an increased risk of Developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), while people carrying the APOE2 allele have a lower risk of developing AD. Patients with the same fatal genetic mutations may develop symptoms of varying severity due to the diversity of other genes in the body. Maze's R&D strategy is to explore the genetic diversity that already exists in humans, identify genetic variants that reduce the risk of specific diseases, and then develop innovative therapies to mimic the effects of those genetic variants.
Image source: Maze official website
Maze's proprietary Maze Compass platform combines human genetic data, functional genomic tools, and data science techniques to map novel connections between known genes and their impact on susceptibility, onset of illness, and the rate of disease progression.
"Over the past year, Maze has generated data spanning multiple disease areas and treatment models." Dr. Jason Coloma, President and CEO of Maze, said, "We believe this funding provides an important resource to advance our pipeline and discover new genetic associations that enable the development of precision medicines for patients with genetically identified diseases." ”
Dr. Jason Coloma, President and CEO of Maze, discusses how future technologies will transform the healthcare landscape at the WuXi AppTec Global Forum 2020