Ray Therapeutics, a San Francisco, CA-based optogenetics company, received a $4M grant.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded the grant.
The company intends to use the funds to support development of RTx-021, an optogenetic therapy for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA), the advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Led by CEO Paul Bresge, Ray Therapeutics provides optogenetics gene therapies for patients with blinding diseases. The company is developing its lead candidate RTx-015 in retinitis pigmentosa.
RTx-021 is a next-generation visual optogenetic gene therapy to improve vision in patients with GA. The treatment delivers light sensing channel rhodopsin to retinal cells, to potentially restore vision using the power of optogenetics. Visual optogenetics uses adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapy to deliver a payload expressing an optogenetic protein to the retina using a simple office-based procedure.