Adrestia Therapeutics

Founded in 2018 by Professor Steve Jackson in partnership with Ahren Innovation Capital, Adrestia Therapeutics was a Cambridge-based biotech that pioneered a novel approach to treating intractable genetic diseases through what it called synthetic rescue. The company's Disease Rebalancing Platform mapped gene interaction networks across the human genome to identify molecular partners capable of restoring function in damaged, diseased, or dying cells, creating a systematic atlas of therapeutic opportunities that conventional target-selection methods could not reach.

Therapy Areas and Pipeline

Adrestia concentrated its early programmes on neurological, neuromuscular, and cardiomyopathic diseases. A notable collaboration with Dr Sarah Tabrizi at University College London focused on Huntington's disease, while a partnership with Proteros Biostructures in Munich accelerated the identification of first-in-class small-molecule candidates across multiple targets. The company also engaged Proteros to support structural biology and drug-discovery chemistry for its lead programmes.

Partnerships and Acquisition

GSK co-led Adrestia's Series A financing alongside Ahren Innovation Capital, establishing a multi-project discovery collaboration in which each of up to five joint programmes was eligible for up to $230 million in post-option development and commercialisation milestones, plus royalties. In August 2023, Insmed Incorporated (Nasdaq: INSM) acquired Adrestia, integrating its synthetic rescue technology into Insmed's early-stage rare disease research portfolio.

Further information is available at adrestia.com.