The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA Announces Grant Funding to AcureX Therapeutics

NEW YORK and SAN CARLOS, Calif., Aug. 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA today announced grant funding to AcureX Therapeutics to support the development of novel, first in class, small molecule drug candidates for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 10 million people worldwide. There is mounting evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction plays an important role in the pathogenesis of PD. In addition, defects in mitophagy are found in PD cases of both sporadic and genetic etiology. AcureX has discovered proprietary targets and drugs that reactivate mitophagy in PD patients by stopping improper signaling to the mitochondrial protein Miro1. AcureX is advancing this new class of therapeutics as potentially disease-modifying therapies for the treatment of PD.

“We are proud to have the support of The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA. This grant is a strong vote of confidence in AcureX’s ability to advance our drug discovery and development efforts around Miro1, an important target at the convergence of multiple pathological and genetic pathways associated with PD,” said William D. Shrader, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of AcureX Therapeutics. “With our therapeutic strategy, focused on correcting Miro1 signaling, coupled with the use of Miro1 as a clinical biomarker of drug efficacy, we aim to develop therapies with the potential to stop disease progression.”

Jonathan Silverstein, founder of The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA, added, “The Foundation is committed to supporting the development of innovative therapeutics that leverage genetic insights to treat and reverse the neurodegenerative process in PD. We are pleased to support AcureX Therapeutics as part of our mission to help bring disease-modifying therapeutic options to PD patients.”

About AcureX Therapeutics

The mission of AcureX Therapeutics is to halt neurodegenerative diseases starting with Parkinson’s Disease. AcureX expects to have one or more late-preclinical therapeutic candidates for Parkinson’s in human trials within two years, followed by candidates for other neurodegenerative diseases. AcureX’s approach and founding intellectual property are based on recent discoveries made by the company’s co-Founder, Xinnan Wang MD, Ph.D. AcureX has built a platform to accelerate drug development and de-risk clinical trials with an exclusive license to this IP. The AcureX team is led by veteran scientists with a proven track record in CNS drug development and serial life sciences entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit https://www.acurex.com.

About The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA

The Silverstein Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on investing in cutting-edge therapeutic approaches for the treatment and prevention of Parkinson’s disease in glucocerebrosidase (GBA) mutation carriers. The Foundation collaborates with clinicians, scientists, and biotechnology companies to accelerate research and clinical trials in an effort to rapidly bring new disease-modifying therapeutic options to patients. Under the leadership of a world-class team with strong domain expertise across neurodegenerative diseases, drug formulation chemistry, translational research, and drug development and commercialization, the Foundation has funded over 30 projects across seven different therapeutic approaches since its inception in 2017. The Foundation applies a unique flexible funding model including both new company formation and traditional research grants to deliver in real-time on its mission of rapidly developing novel disease-modifying treatments for Parkinson’s disease. For more information, please visit www.silversteinfoundation.org.

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