UZH-founded skin graft creator Cutiss has welcomed series A investors led by Giammaria Giuliani in a bid to provide improved healing of dermatological scars left by reconstructive or plastic surgery.
Cutiss, a Switzerland-based skin graft developer spun out from University of Zurich (UZH), closed a SFr7.3m ($7.2m) series A round today led by private investor Giammaria Giuliani.
State-owned bank Zürcher Kantonalbank took part in the round, as did investment partnership Yellowstone Holding and a number of unnamed private investors.
Founded in 2017, Cutiss is preparing phase 2 clinical studies of a cell-based skin graft technology called DenovoSkin that would be applied to treat scars left from reconstructive and plastic surgery for skin defects.
DenovoSkin is bioengineered from the patient’s own cells to help regenerate the dermis, a lower layer of skin only marginally repaired during surgery, with the effect that scars develop from the remaining damage.
Cutiss will use the series A capital to scale up DenovoSkin’s production and begin work on additional products. Giuliani has joined the board of directors.
The phase 2 clinical trials will be financed through Wyss Zurich, a research accelerator jointly owned by University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
DenovoSkin is the result of 15 years of research conducted at University-Children’s Hospital Zurich, a research hospital at UZH, led by Ernst Reichmann, professor and head of the university’s tissue biology research unit.
Cutiss previously obtained $1m of since-exercised convertible financing in September 2017 from UZH Life Sciences Fund, a university venture fund established by UZH’s Foundation and Novartis Venture Fund, a corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
