Cytura sits atop of seed round

Cytura Therapeutics, a Netherlands-based small molecule cancer drug developer founded by a former faculty member of KU Leuven and medical centre Amsterdam UMC, has closed a seed round of undisclosed size backed by KU Leuven’s Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3).
The deal was led by VC firm Thuja Capital Management’s Healthcare Seed Fund II and also featured KU Leuven’s seed-stage vehicle, Gemma Frisius Fund, as well as Bom Brabant Ventures, the venture arm of Dutch state-owned regional development board Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij.
Cytura Therapeutics aims to design a small molecule drug candidate to tackle instabilities in the human genome linked to the spread of cancer.
Cancer tends to change its nature over time through increased genomic variability, leading to greater resistance to drug treatments, which Cytura hopes to counter with its approach.
One member of Cytura’s founding team is Ad van Gorp, former chief executive of KU Leuven’s CD3 and Amsterdam UMC, as well as of oncological drug discovery company Lead Pharma. The company is collaborating with both academic institutions to advance its therapeutic pipeline.
Van Gorp said: “One of the biggest issues in cancer treatment is that the disease has the ability to change its nature over time caused by the increasing genomic instability.
“Cytura’s R&D efforts are focused on the development of small molecules that will slow down or stop this genomic instability. I am committed to find this medicine which could lead to real advancements in the fight against cancer.”