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s described in our previous issue, Ribometrix is a UNC
and Carolina Chemistry spinout company based, in
part, on the research work of Dr. Kevin Weeks. Ribometrix
is focused on creating new medicines by finding small
molecules that bind to RNA. The idea is revolutionary in
that the vast majority of small-molecule drugs developed
by scientists to date work by targeting proteins. Many
therapeutically important proteins do not contain sites
that can be readily bound by drugs. This problem can be
circumvented if protein production is reduced or blocked
entirely by targeting the RNA that encodes the protein.
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ibometrix was founded by Weeks and his former stu-
dent Dr. Katie Warner. The company was initially sup-
ported by federal innovation grants and by funding from
the state of North Carolina. Last year, the pair obtained
$7.5 million in seed funding that allowed them build out
a team to prove that their idea and drug discovery plat-
form will work. During the past year, Ribometrix, which
is located in Durham, developed a suite of new technol-
ogies and expanded to roughly 15 people including ex-
perienced senior leadership. Four current employees at
Ribometrix were formerly students at UNC or were as-
sociated with the UNC Chemistry Department. This No-
vember, the company successfully raised a much bigger
round of funding, $30 million, which will allow Ribometrix
to transition from a company that creates enabling tech-
nologies to a comprehensive drug discovery company.
The number of Ribometrix employees, pictured above,
will double in the next year.
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ibometrix is focused on neurodegeneration and
cancer therapies and now has multiple therapeutic
pipelines. The company is also working to develop part-
nerships with larger, more established pharmaceutical
companies with the goal of developing drugs against
other disease classes. “The most fulfilling thing has been
watching how basic research can be developed with the
potential to solve major problems in human health,” said
Dr. Warner, and Dr. Weeks noted that, “If we can get our
approach to work once, then drug discoverers will believe
we can do so multiple times. That is when we will have
the opportunity to categorically change the landscape of
drug discovery.”
CHEM.UNC.EDU | CHEMISTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA |
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