Our Mission
Develop preventative treatments for chemotherapy and diabetic peripheral neuropathy with a deep understanding of the root cause of nerve damage.
60%
Of diabetic patients develop peripheral neuropathy
50%
Of chemotherapy patients suffer from irreversible nerve damage
30%
Of chemotherapy patients experience dose alteration and interruption of treatment due to severe neuropathy
500 million people worldwide and 30 million Americans suffer from peripheral neuropathy without any effective treatment options on the market today. Peripheral neuropathy is predominantly caused by diabetes, chemotherapy, alcoholism, HIV as well as genetic and auto-immune disorders. Patients suffer from severe pain, numbness, tingling and temperature sensitivity.
Studying the root cause of peripheral neuropathy for many years, our exceptional research team made a breakthrough discovery. We were able to identify a unique mechanism that causes peripheral nerve damage, and we are currently working on a therapeutic that will prevent and restore nerve damage caused by diabetes and chemotherapy.
By targeting the root cause of nerve damage, our innovative therapeutic drug will not only prevent nerve damage but restore nerve function. By addressing nerve damage at its core, we will transform lives, reduce mortality rates, and increase positive treatment outcomes. Our goal is to enable chemotherapy patients to complete their treatment without the detrimental side effects that currently result in dose alteration and interruption of life-saving treatment.
RESEARCH
Problem
Research
Solution
Team
Sandra Rieger, Ph.D.
Bianca Ruiz
Founder & CEO
Founder & COO
Dr. Rieger is an internationally recognized scientist who has been working on sensory neuropathy for several years. She is a member of the Toxic Neuropathy Consortium as part of the Peripheral Nerve Society, which brings internationally recognized leaders in the Neuropathy field together to develop therapies for this understudied condition.
Dr. Rieger is an associate professor at the University of Miami and has been awarded funding for her research on peripheral neuropathy from the National Institutes of Health.
Mrs. Ruiz has a background in Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank. She was responsible for managing, streamlining and relocating derivative operations from Europe to the US and from the US to the UK. She helped launch a tech company and got a groundbreaking transaction processing platform successfully developed, adopted and implemented within the entire Investment Banking community. She is now looking to apply her expertise in executing product delivery as COO to Avantyx and help to develop treatments for those suffering from peripheral neuropathy.
Yangbo Feng, Ph.D.
VP Chemistry
Dr. Feng is an Associate Professor/Research in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is a medicinal chemist with extensive experience in drug discovery. Dr. Feng has been working on small molecule drug discovery projects for various targets including kinases, epigenetics, GPCRs, ion-channels, metalloproteins, and proteases, etc. Several compounds designed/prepared by Dr. Feng have entered the IND stage and one compound entered phase 3 clinical trials.
Scientific Advisors
Jeff Bronstein
Jo Davisson
M.D./Ph.D.
Ph.D.
Jeff Bronstein received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and M.D. and Ph.D. from UCLA as a recipient of the Medical Scientist Training Program Award. He completed a residency in Neurology and fellowship training in Movement Disorders at UCLA and at Queens Square in London. Dr. Bronstein also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology before being appointed an Assistant Professor of Neurology in 1994, Director of the Movement Disorders Program at UCLA in 1996 and Director of the Wilson’s Disease Center of Excellence in 2004. He was promoted to Professor of Neurology in 2006, Professor of Molecular Toxicology in 2007 and awarded the Fred Silton Family Chair in Movement Disorders in 2016. His clinical interests include the management of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other movement disorders, surgical treatment of PD, and developing new therapies for patients. Dr. Bronstein’s research interests include the study of the causes of PD (environmental and genetic) using cell and zebrafish models as well as population-based studies
V. Jo Davisson, Ph.D (Jo) is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. He has over 40 years of research experience in basic ana applied pharmaceutical sciences. His current research focus areas are early-stage drug discovery projects for viral diseases and oncology. He has been involved in a variety of consulting endeavors with the chemical and pharmaceutical industry his entire career. His current activities include the commercialization of pharmaceutical and diagnostic technologies. He is currently a co-founder and CSO of Amplified Sciences, an early-stage clinical diagnostics platform technology company.
Nathan Staff
M.D./Ph.D.
Dr. Nathan Staff is a neurologist, Professor, and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic Rochester who cares for patients with neuromuscular diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease) and peripheral neuropathy. After completing his Bachelor of Science at the University of Minnesota, he received his Medical Degree and Ph.D. in neuroscience from Northwestern University. His neurology training was at Mayo Clinic Rochester which included sub-specialization training in clinical neurophysiology and peripheral nerve disorders. He is the Director of the ALS Multidisciplinary Clinic, which provides long-term care for over 150 local patients yearly with ALS. Dr. Staff’s research efforts employ regenerative medicine strategies in both laboratory-based model systems and human clinical trials in order to study disorders that damage the peripheral nervous system. His emphasis has been primarily on ALS and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, two diseases with high clinical morbidity. He and his colleagues have led Mayo Clinic’s Clinical Trials studying injection of autologous mesenchymal stem cells into the spinal fluid of patients with ALS. In the laboratory, he utilizes patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to study mechanisms of neuromuscular diseases in vitro.
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