All units consist of one share of CohBar's common stock and one-half of one common stock purchase warrant.
CohBar's scientific leadership is centered around the company's founders, Dr. Pinchas Cohen, Dean of the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California, and Dr. Nir Barzilai, Professor of Genetics and Director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Their multi-disciplinary expertise and their investigations into and knowledge of age-related diseases have enabled and focused CohBar's research efforts on the mitochondrial genome and its potential to yield mitochondrial-derived peptides, or MDP's, which the company believes have significant potential for development into therapeutic treatments for major age-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and atherosclerosis.
Mitochondria, the only parts of the cell other than the nucleus that have their own genome, produce energy and regulate cell death in response to signals received from the cell. Until recently, scientists believed the mitochondrial genome contained only 37 genes and had been relatively unexplored as a focus of drug discovery efforts. Research by CohBar founders and their academic collaborators revealed that the mitochondrial genome has as many as 80 distinct new genes that encode peptides (small proteins in the body) which the company refers to as mitochondrial-derived peptides, or MDPs.
MDPs influence cellular activities by acting as messengers between cells, triggering intra-cellular changes that affect cell growth and differentiation, and play a role in metabolism. MDPs represent a diverse collection of peptides, which the company believes have the potential to lead to novel therapeutics for a number of age-related diseases.
"We believe that the recently expanded mitochondrial genome holds vast potential for identifying and developing a new class of therapeutics," said Jon Stern, Chief Executive Officer of CohBar, "and our founders and their academic colleagues have spent more than a decade mining the mitochondrial genome and discovering genes that encode novel secreted peptides. Our current focus is on advancing therapeutic candidates that exploit these novel peptides for the treatment of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and atherosclerosis."
"The successful completion of these financing activities will enable us to expand and accelerate our research and development programs, and our listing on the TSX Venture Exchange together with registration in the U.S. should provide the company with broader access to the capital markets in support of our future needs."
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