Can a cell ther­a­py treat mus­cu­lar dy­s­tro­phy? A Ger­man bil­lion­aire's an­ti-ag­ing start­up is try­ing to find out

Gene ther­a­py com­pa­nies have faced huge hur­dles try­ing to de­liv­er healthy genes in­to mus­cu­lar dy­s­tro­phy pa­tients’ mus­cle cells, so here’s an idea: Why don’t we just re­place the mus­cle cells them­selves?

Over the last two years, Vi­ta Ther­a­peu­tics has been ex­plor­ing that pos­si­bil­i­ty, build­ing on ear­ly stem cell work from Johns Hop­kins pro­fes­sors Gab­sang Lee and Kathryn Wag­n­er. And on Tues­day they an­nounced a $32 mil­lion Se­ries A to be­gin to move their first ther­a­py in­to the clin­ic, where they hope it will help re­build mus­cle in pa­tients with a type of dy­s­tro­phy that af­flicts the arms and legs.

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