Myocea:
We are Muscle-Strong

Learn more

Our latest eLife paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35076017/

Our Mission

From cells to therapeutics, organs and sustainable source of food

We convert cells from humans and animals into a competent, functional skeletal muscle tissue to model diseases, develop diverse therapeutic modalities, regenerate aged muscle, grow organs and make synthetic meat.

Cell & Tissue Growth, Organs

Therapy

Synthetic Meat

Muscle Regeneration

What we Do

We use healthy or affected skeletal muscle progenitors cells to model neuromuscular diseases and to discover diverse therapeutics.

Our proprietary skeletal muscle differentiation platform reliably and reproducibly converts pluripotent or embryonic stem cells into satellite cells and myoblasts with high regenerative potential. This process does not require genetic intervention or cell sorting. It yields a homogeneous and physiologically competent population of cells and/or cultures immediately suitable for screening and advanced drug discovery.

High Yield

No Sorting

No Genetic Manipulation

Our Competitive Advantages

Therapeutic candidate GBC0905 for the targeted treatment of FSHD

Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) status granted by the FDA In May 2018;
aimed to treat, delay and/or slow down progression of the disease;
potently and synergistically targets multiple mechanisms of DUX4 toxicity;
affects both DUX4 gene and respective protein activity;
displays large efficacy-safety (therapeutic) window, suitable for once-daily oral administration;

Skeletal Muscle Platform

yields pure, fully competent progenitors with therapeutic regenerative potential including muscle stem cells (satellite cells)
suitable for disease modeling, sophisticated screening, functional assays
produces 2D/3D models of the skeletal muscle
works with embryonic and pluripotent stem cells of diverse origin and genetic background

Pipeline

Accelerated discovery-to-clinic timelines for clinical development of diverse therapies to treat skeletal muscle.

Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy (FSHD, TYPES I/II): GBC0905

Satellite Cells for Muscle Regeneration

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (Skeletal Muscle)

Kennedy’s Disease (SBMA)

Generation of Improved 2D & 3D Skeletal Muscle Cultures

Mini-muscles: collaborative efforts

Substrate firmness: align myofibers, promote maturation
Stem cell derived organoids/3D cultures: realistic tissue milieu
Clinically relevant assays

contraction force, satellite cell niche, environment

Myocea collaborates with:

Industry: Vala Therapeutics, Cytoo on organoids, mini-muscle
Academia: University of Massachusetts Medical School (Dr. Charles Emerson, Jr), Duke University (Dr. Nenad Bursac)
Advocacy: FSH Society, FSH-MD Support Group UK
Media: AMSBio, Aurorea, Funakoshi

Timeline

Genea Biocells Founded in Australia 2012

Genea Biocells, the predecessor of Myocea, was founded by Genea, a leading IVF company from Australia with the world’s largest embryonic stem cell bank, to focus on disease modeling using human embryonic stem cells
Genea Biocells moves to the U.S. 2014

Genea Biocells established business in San Diego, U.S. to focus on developing therapeutic pipeline to treat muscular dystrophies including facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (“FSHD”)
Therapeutic candidate GBC0905 to treat FSHD discovered 2018

Genea Biocells received an Orphan Drug Designation from FDA for its small molecule GBC0905 as a lead agent to treat FSHD
Operations restarted as Myocea, Inc. May-June 2019

Subsequent to the sale of Genea in late 2018, operations restarted as Myocea, Inc. with all key intellectual property and know-how retained
IND enabling studies for GBC0905 2020

Operations re-started in San Diego, CA; IND enabling studies and clinical evaluation of GBC0905, skeletal muscle media and satellite-like cells regenerative medicine
IND filing and anticipated Phases I/II clinical studies 2021

Projected IND filing and start of Phase I clinical studies for GBC0905

Management Team
Board of Directors
Scientific Advisory Board

Management Team

Charles Martin

18 years experience in cell/stem cell biology focused on laboratory applications, scale up, assay development, production and automation; experienced in clinical regulatory and biosafety disciplines; Director of Operations.

Louis Villalba

25 years of industry experience in developing and commercializing innovative therapies; Business Development, currently the CEO of Genea Biomedx, Non-Executive Director to support Myocea’s fundraising activities.

Board of Directors

Alex Kiselyov, PhD

PhD, Founder and Chairman of the Board
Over two decades of drug discovery and development expertise in pharma and biotech companies including Amgen, ImClone/Lilly, deCODE, Genea Biocells; diverse modalities in mid/late stages of clinical developments to treat oncology, CNS, metabolic and neuromuscular disorders with specific emphasis on rare diseases; over 170 peer-reviewed publications and over 60 granted patents and patent applications.

Joseph Tam, PhD

PhD; over 45 years of experience in molecular diagnostics, founder and board of director of Pangenia Inc.

Louis Villalba

25 years of industry experience in developing and commercializing innovative therapies; currently the CEO of Genea Biomedx

Scientific Advisory Board

Charlie Emerson, Jr., PhD

Dr. Emerson is a key opinion leader in the field of muscular disorders. His research has focused on defining transcriptional networks and signaling pathways that control the specification and differentiation of skeletal muscle progenitors. Current studies utilize iPSC and xenograft technologies to model the molecular pathology of facioscapulohumeral (FSHD) and LGMD2i muscular dystrophies.

Lawrence Hayward, PhD

Dr. Lawrence Hayward is a physician-scientist providing care since 2000 for patients in the UMMS MDA Neuromuscular Clinic. Dr. Hayward serves as Co-Director of the multidisciplinary FSH Muscular Dystrophy Clinic. His research group focuses on defining molecular mechanisms that cause neuromuscular diseases including ALS, FSHD, and hyperkalemic periodic paralysis in order to design effective therapeutics for these conditions.

Kit Lam, MD, PhD

Dr. Lam is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. He was on the faculty of the University of Arizona until June 1999, when he joined UC Davis School of Medicine as the Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Beginning April 1, 2010, he became the Chair of Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. He is both a practicing medical oncologist and a laboratory investigator.