Ovarian Therapeutics: Why We Invested in Gameto
Dr. Dina Radenkovic knows menopause and infertility does not need to be a part of life and is demanding more for women everywhere
Announced last Monday by TechCrunch and Forbes, Gameto has closed an oversubscribed 20M Series A round to finance and continue to support R&D and first product launch. This round is led by Future Ventures, with other key participants in the round Bold Capital Partners, TA Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners, as well as investors including Anne Wojcicki, the Founder of 23&Me; Brian Armstrong, the Founder of Coinbase; Jack Abraham, Founder of HIMs & Hers and Atomic VC and Plum Alley Investments. Plum Alley Investments is proud to join this round and support Gameto, a new biotechnology company using novel cellular reprogramming technology to solve the problem of accelerated ovarian aging to change the trajectory of women’s health and longevity, improving women’s life quality and further gender parity.
Why Gameto?
There are world changing health inventions on the horizon and for too long women have been a side note in those breakthroughs and often left out entirely. In fact, medical research has historically been done only using male rats because they have easier biology. It was not until 2014 that female rats were required to be included in scientific studies by the NIH. Putting women’s bodies and our systems at the forefront of medical research and investment is the beginning of a new and exciting movement. Imagine what we are going to learn, and the solutions we are going to find, as society starts to place weight on women’s bodies, and the profound influence their reproductive organs have on health and longevity.
This pivotal moment is being shaped by a group of highly motivated and influential doctors, researchers and visionary women taking action when they funded The Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality at the Buck Institute to focus on the connection between a women’s reproductive life and a longer healthspan (the healthy stretch of a person’s life). With laser focus and funding, a paradigm shift is underway and new ideas, solutions and companies are becoming a reality.
Plum Alley Investments is excited to bring forward a company that sprung out of this space, Gameto, as our first company of 2022. Co-founded by Dr. Dina Radenkovic, together with a world class team of scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors and visionaries in women’s health, Gameto has a significant and proprietary discovery with the goal to vastly improve women’s health by tending to the life of the ovary and egg. Dr. Radenkovic explains that extending the time for ovarian and egg health, there is a cascade of positive benefits including higher fertility rates, less negative effects of menopause and the mitigation of diseases from the biological changes that occur when ovaries die. Simply put, Gameto is transformative for women’s health and quality of life.
Gameto’s Three Applications
Gameto is taking a more scientific approach to managing infertility and menopause, by creating human ovarian cells via cellular reprogramming. Japanese researcher and professor Shinya Yamanaka discovered that mature cells can be converted to stem cells and received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine as a result of this research in 2012. Yamanaka’s work on iPSC (Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells) built the foundation for today’s stem cell therapy for many diseases. Based on this breakthrough technology, working with Harvard Medical School, Buck Institute and Duke School of Medicine, Gameto has achieved a proprietary process using iPSCs and built a platform Novogenesis to develop three programs and applications:
- Fertilo — Oocyte supporting helper cells (specific to the ovary of the individual) will create healthier ovaries before entering IVF treatment, yielding healthier fertilized eggs in a non-invasive way.
- Ameno — Ovarian tissue can be made healthier in vitro to make menopause precise and even optional. The cells will maintain the health of the ovary longer and prevent the associated the health declines associated with menopause.
- Deovo — Testing drugs on ovarian tissue outside the body will lead to a data gathering of the environmental influences damaging women’s health and longevity.
This means we are looking at three ways to increase the health of the ovary at two critical times in a woman’s life, and then the subsequent act of being able to test drugs and toxicity on tissues of an ovary outside of a human body will open up a whole library of understanding as to how an ovary ages naturally and when the human body is tampered with. This is also revolutionary to the whole species, as the triggers that lead to the degradation of health in a woman’s system are directly correlated to the triggers for her biological male counterparts — a father, son or brother.
Five reasons we believe in Gameto
- Breakthrough technology — Gameto refined and targeted cellular reprogramming technology to generate healthy human ovarian cells in vitro through a proprietary platform that has never before been seen in women’s health.
- Three huge market applications — Fertilo, Ameno and Deovo are being developed on the Novogenesis platform to help improve women’s healthspan and overall quality of life.
- Diverse and Strong Team — Gameto has a world class scientific and founding team including Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Dina Radenkovic, Co-Founder and Chairman Martin Varsavsky, a serial entrepreneur and investor, and Co-Founder Pranam Chaterjee, PhD, a cellular reprogramming expert and a computational biologist.
- Market Need — The three products all have large and expanding global market opportunities. The global fertility market was valued at $33.1 billion in 2020 and is predicted to reach $47.9 billion by 2030. The global menopause market size was valued at $14.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $22.7 billion by 2028. The longevity market is already worth $110 billion and analysts at Bank of America have estimated the industry that extends life is set to be worth at least $600 billion by 2025
- First product — Fertilo will be launched with fast regulatory approval (6 month FDA trial), and an easy route to market, as it is simply a medical addition to fertility treatment, with co-founder Martin being the founder of the biggest fertility clinic chain Prelude in the US.
Gameto will have a Global Impact on Women’s Health
Gameto has a direct and powerful approach to understanding a woman’s health and the direct connection with the ovary. The discoveries and applications that Gameto is pursuing are profound compared to what we know and have the potential to change fertility and menopause for women globally. Gameto’s immediate priority now is building up the science and successfully bringing the first product to the market, but they are doing more than that. Gameto is starting a movement to better understand the female body and what it is capable of. Our Plum Alley team is happy to support Gameto on their path to becoming the leader in ovarian therapeutics and finally bringing much needed recognition and research with solutions that will improve the lives of women and humankind.
