Korro Bio surges to $91.5m series A

Korro Bio, a US-based RNA therapy developer based on Marine Biological Laboratory research, raised $91.5m yesterday in a series A round led by Wu Capital.

Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic investment division of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, backed the round alongside Atlas Venture, New Enterprise Associates, Qiming Venture Partners USA, Surveyor Capital, Cormorant Asset Management and MP Healthcare Venture Management.

Korro Bio is developing drugs using an RNA editing platform called Opera that leverages enzymes in the body to modify RNA coding and address disease-causing mutations, an approach dubbed adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (Adar).

In contrast to conventional gene editing, Korro’s technology is endogenous to natural cells meaning it does not cause a double-stranded genetic split on application because it does not need to travel into the host organism.

Korro targets conditions affecting the liver, eye and central nervous system, and trade paper Fierce Biotech cited Parkinson’s disease and Duchenne muscular dystrophy as potential candidates.

Adar emerged from research undertaken by Josen Rosenthal, a senior biologist at Marine Biological Library, a nonprofit research institute affiliated to University of Chicago.

The series A capital will help progress Korro’s lead program toward an investigational new drug filing and extend its portfolio of RNA-editing drug assets.

Korro secured an undisclosed sum from Atlas Venture when it founded the company in 2018.

Nessan Bermingham, co-founder and chairman of Korro Bio, said: “This technology holds tremendous potential to usher in a new era of RNA editing therapies. …

“We are grateful for the continued support of our existing investors and look forward to working with our new investors to advance a new generation of transformational therapies to the clinic.”