Third Rock’s MyoKardia Gets $38M for Genetic Forms of Heart Disease
Summary
Third Rock’s MyoKardia Gets $38M for Genetic Forms of Heart Disease Xconomy San Francisco — When Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis dropped dead during a shootaround 20 years ago, little was known about his underlying heart problem.It took an autopsy to confirm that he had a genetic defect known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which leads to thickening of the heart tissue and irregular heartbeats.Years later, as a slew of genetic technologies have come together, Third Rock Ventures is betting $38 million that a startup called MyoKardia can make drugs that treat that underlying genetic defect, and others like it that affect 1 million people in the U.S. MyoKardia, a new company setting up shop in San Francisco, is being led by Third Rock venture partner Charles Homcyand a team of top academic scientists who study the genetics of cardiovascular disease and muscle biology.The basic concept at MyoKardia is to connect the dots between abnormal genes, proteins, and tissues in certain genetically defined types of heart disease.MyoKardia is getting started in San Francisco, Homcy says, partly to be near Spudich, who recently won the Albert Lasker award for his basic research for his studies of how muscles contract.