Myomaker Bio has received £325,000 investment from SFC Capital to help its mission to speed up drug development and bring new treatments to market.
The team of scientists and researchers behind the business are world-leaders in muscle biology and have developed human muscle organs and tissues that closely behave like real muscles in the human body.
By using these muscles to test drugs, Myomaker Bio aims to speed up the creation of new medicines for rare diseases and more accurately predict what will happen in real patients before moving to clinical trials. It also hopes this will cut the use of animal testing.
Professor Mark Lewis, Myomaker Bio’s CEO, said: “It is extremely satisfying to see this outcome after many years of work in this area alongside our incredible team. For our investors to believe in us and our technologies is humbling and gratifying.
“Drug development remains slow, expensive and heavily dependent on animal testing, which doesn’t always predict human outcomes. Our human muscle platforms are designed to bridge that gap.
“This investment allows us to scale our technology to bring safer, more effective treatments to patients faster.”
Adam Beveridge, Principal at SFC Capital, said: “The work that Myomaker Bio is doing is at the cutting edge of biology and technology development, and we’re proud to be able support this exciting spinout business with £325k of pre-seed funding.”
The technology builds on more than 50 years of combined research by the founding team, who have secured over £37 million in R&D funding and published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in the field of muscle biology.
Professor Dan Parsons, Loughborough University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation said: “This is an exciting moment for Myomaker Bio and for Loughborough University’s innovation ecosystem. The team’s pioneering work in engineered human muscle systems is opening entirely new possibilities for safer, faster and more human relevant drug discovery. This investment will accelerate their journey from breakthrough science to real world impact, and we are delighted to see Myomaker Bio take this significant next step.”
Now based in new laboratory facilities in Holborn, London, the company will use the funding to expand its scientific team, scale production of its muscle models and accelerate commercial partnerships.