The UK medical charity LifeArc has provided £1.5 million in seed funding to a four-year old company, Ducentis BioTherapeutics Ltd, that is investigating molecules for treating inflammation and autoimmune disease. Ducentis was co-founded in 2015 by Philip Huxley, an expert in drug discovery, and David Blackbourn, head of the School of Biosciences and Medicine at the University of Surrey, UK to exploit the CD200 axis. CD200 is a glycoprotein expressed on multiple cells and tissues which uses a receptor, CD200R, to transmit signals affecting responses in multiple physiological systems.
