GlycoNet Chair Frank Gleeson announces launch of Satellos Bioscience Inc.

We are delighted to congratulate our Chair, Frank Gleeson on the founding and launch of a new entrant on Canada’s biotechnology scene – Satellos Bioscience Inc.

Frank has teamed up with his long-time colleague Dr. Michael Rudnicki — the Scientific Director of a fellow NCE, the Stemcell Network of Canada — and Canada’s premier healthcare investment bank Bloom Burton as co-founders of the company.

Based on a series of landmark discoveries in Dr. Rudnicki’s lab elucidating mechanisms which regulate muscle stem cell division and differentiation, Satellos aims to harness these intrinsic mechanisms using small molecules to create a new therapeutic paradigm.

More specifically, Satellos has discovered a novel target which modulates the orientation by which stem cells divide and replenish (called polarity) and shown its potential relevance to the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a severe genetic disease of children that currently leads to death in early adulthood. Satellos has completed a seed round of funding to advance its drug discovery and development activities in DMD and other musculoskeletal diseases, and to expand its polarity regulating platform into neuronal cell regeneration.

The company closed a seed round of financing at the beginning of May.