Fighting diseases related to mitochondrial dysfunction

(EPFL, November 04, 2013)

Mitokyne, a startup based in Cambridge co-founded by EPFL professor Johan Auwerx, has signed a 45 million dollars research agreement with pharmaceutical company Astellas. Mitokyne’s objective is to fight mitochondrial related diseases, which can cause blindness, deafness, chronic muscle weakness or neurological disorders. Because these diseases are relatively rare, they fall into the category of orphan diseases. "The molecules that we will develop for treating extreme forms of these diseases are very likely to also work on less severe ones or on types occurring at an advanced age, such as glaucoma, hearing loss, sarcopenia and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's diseases", estimated Auwerx, thereby also paving the way to a larger-scale success on the market.