Castle Creek Biosciences, Inc. is collaborating with Mayo Clinic to advance discovery and pre-clinical development of investigational gene therapy candidates for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) and classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Neither rare genetic connective tissue disorder has an FDA-approved treatments.

The research will be led by principal investigator David R. Deyle, MD, a board-certified medical geneticist with the department of medical genetics at Mayo Clinic and a leader in the field of connective tissue disorders.

"We are honored to be working with Dr. Deyle and his highly regarded research team at Mayo Clinic to identify and evaluate gene therapy candidates that hold promise for treating debilitating, rare connective tissue disorders with high unmet medical needs," says Matthew Gantz, president and chief executive officer of Castle Creek Biosciences. "We expect this initiative will be the first of multiple Castle Creek strategic collaborations with leading medical research institutions that have the potential to expand our innovative gene therapy discoveries for rare diseases and offer hope to underserved patient communities impacted by these devastating conditions."

OI is estimated to affect one in 6,600 people in the US and may be diagnosed at any age. EDS is estimated to affect one in 20,000 people in the US.

For this research collaboration, Castle Creek will contribute its proficiency in rare diseases and gene therapy development and has licensed intellectual property related to OI and classical EDS from Mayo Clinic. Following completion of the discovery through pre-clinical development phases at Mayo Clinic, Castle Creek anticipates moving into clinical development of selected gene therapy candidates at its in-house, commercial-scale current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) manufacturing facility located in Exton, Pa.