Acorn Bioventures

X4 Pharmaceuticals a clinical-stage oncology company developing best-in-class oral small molecule CXCR4 antagonists for the treatment. The company is developing two unique programs such as drug candidate, X4P-001, has clinical experience in over 70 subjects, and is advancing into Phase 1/2 trials in refractory clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and refractory epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), the second program, X4P-002, is a unique series of late lead molecules that penetrate the blood-brain barrier. They will pursue early clinical development in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a rare form of lethal brain cancer, for the X4P-002 program.

Neuron23 is a developer of drugs intended to treat Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

ONK Therapeutics Limited develops anti-cancer therapies using natural killer cells. It has a collaboration with Avectas to develop off-the-shelf cancer therapy. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Galway, Ireland.

Renovacor is a preclinical‑stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative gene therapy‑based treatments for cardiovascular disease. Renovacor’s lead program is a recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV)‑based gene therapy for patients suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) due to mutations in the Bcl2‑associated athanogene 3 (BAG3) gene. Dilated cardiomyopathy is a condition affecting over 3 million patients in the US and growing steadily. Many patients develop DCM due to ischemic heart disease. Recently subpopulations have been identified that develop DCM due to mutations in specific genes that have been shown to result in the development of DCM. One of these specific genes is the BAG3 gene. The prevalence of disease‑causing BAG3 haploinsufficiency is estimated at approximately 35,000 individuals in the United States, representing an orphan disease by FDA guidelines. It is estimated a similar number of DCM patients with BAG3 mutations exist in Europe. These patients are typically younger and progress to end-stage heart failure sooner than patients with ischemic heart disease. Currently, DCM patients with a BAG3 mutation are treated with standard of care for heart failure. Despite improvements in pharmacotherapy and care, the five‑year survival of a patient with DCM is only 50%. The development of a BAG3 gene replacement therapy for patients with DCM that carry BAG3 mutations could potentially prevent the progression of disease in this otherwise healthy population of young adults.

Eliem Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing treatments for nervous system disorders. The company leverages its expertise in neuroscience, translational medicine, and clinical development to meet this unmet medical need with a highly innovative pipeline. Eliem Therapeutics develops and commercializes potentially “best-in-class” drug candidates to treat neuronal excitability disorders. These conditions—such as chronic pain, depression, epilepsy, and anxiety—cause deep suffering for tens of millions of people each day. At its core, the Eliem team is motivated by the promise of helping patients live happier, more fulfilling lives.

OnKure is a biotechnology company that commercializes a new cancer therapy based on novel, less toxic kinase inhibitor drugs. The company is engaged in the discovery and development of epigenetic therapies for the treatment of cancer that includes selective inhibitors of histone deacetylases. In pre-clinical models of both hematological and solid tumor cancers, their lead candidate, OKI-179, significantly and safely reduces the growth rate of tumors when dosed by itself or in combination with other targeted therapies. OnKure advances the HDAC3 selective inhibitor OKI-422 into pre-clinical toxicology studies. The company's drug candidates aim to treat patients by targeting malignant cells directly, by working in combination with other small molecule therapies and by priming the tumor microenvironment such that checkpoint inhibition is optimized.

Aileron Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that develops a class of drugs called Stapled Peptides. Stapled Peptides represent the first general solution for modulating intracellular protein-protein interactions that are critical control points to nearly all functions of a cell.

Neuron23 is a developer of drugs intended to treat Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

Q32 Bio is a biotechnology company developing treatments for patients with severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Q32 Bio is addressing dysregulation to help patients take back control of their lives in diseases with few to no treatment options, or those diseases where current therapeutics provide inadequate relief. Q32 Bio consists of a team of scientists and industry veterans with strong expertise in immunology. The team has a strong track record of discovering and developing new and innovative therapies.

Freeline is a clinical biotechnology company that develops transformative adeno-associated virus-vector-mediated systemic gene therapies. They use a designed AAV vector and capsid along with novel promoters and transgenes to deliver a functional copy of a therapeutic gene into human liver cells to express a functional level of the missing or dysfunctional protein into the patient’s bloodstream. Their development programs including clinical trials focus on developing products.

Cardiff Oncology is a clinical-stage oncology therapeutics company developing drugs that target cell division for the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas, and solid tumor cancers. It has a broad intellectual property and proprietary technology to measure circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in urine and blood to identify and quantify clinically actionable markers for predicting response to cancer therapies. The company offers its PCM technology at its CLIA/CAP-accredited laboratory and plans to continue to vertically integrate its PCM technology with precision cancer therapeutics. Cardiff Oncology (formerly known as Trovagene) was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.