Civetta to target propeller proteins

Abstract

The health-care investment firm Deerfield Management has launched a biotech start-up called Civetta Therapeutics with $53 million in series A financing. Civetta will develop small molecules that target β propeller proteins, which get their name from β-pleated amino acid sheets arranged in a circle like a propeller or pinwheel. The Cambridge, Massachusetts–based firm says β propeller proteins are important for protein-protein interactions and are implicated in cancer, metabolic diseases, and neurodegeneration.