RNA editing startup launches with $30M based on Stanford and University of Tübingen research

The race to de­vel­op new ther­a­pies that pre­cise­ly ed­it short-lived RNA mol­e­cules in­stead of mak­ing ir­re­versible changes to DNA is heat­ing up. A new en­trant to the grow­ing field emerged from stealth Tues­day morn­ing with a $30 mil­lion ini­tial fi­nanc­ing round led by ARCH Ven­ture Part­ners to make RNA edit­ing ther­a­pies for both rare and com­mon dis­eases.

The start­up, called AIR­NA, was co-found­ed in 2021 by Thorsten Stafforst — a Uni­ver­si­ty of Tübin­gen bio­chemist whose work over the past decade helped spark in­ter­est in RNA edit­ing ther­a­pies — and Jin Bil­ly Li, a Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty bi­ol­o­gist who has stud­ied the en­zymes that pow­er RNA edit­ing in na­ture since 2006.

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