ZAKA VC Backs Nephrogen’s Kidney-Focused Gene Therapy Platform

• ZAKA VC supports Nephrogen, a gene therapy startup for kidney and pancreas diseases
• The founder is motivated by personal health experience to develop a cure
• Nephrogen’s NeFIND™ platform enables precise, efficient, and scalable gene therapy delivery
• The startupclosed USD 2M Pre-Seed investment with plans for clinical trials in 2027

This November, the proactive Czech investor ZAKA VC welcomed another addition to its diverse portfolio—the New York-based Nephrogen, a pioneer of gene therapy for kidney and pancreas diseases.

Innovation Inspired by Personal Pain

While many startups are born from their founders personal pains, in Nephrogen’s case this statement is literal. When the startup’s co-founder and CEO Demetri Maxim was seven, his mother’s kidneys failed, forcing her onto dialysis. Four times a week she spent hours in the hospital, relying on a machine to do the work her kidneys could no longer perform. A kidney transplant two years later restored much of her independence, but it did not end the family’s connection to kidney disease. Mr Maxim soon learned that he had inherited Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), the same genetic disorder that had afflicted his mother.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects roughly one in seven Americans, and about 10% of those cases stem from genetic causes like PKD. The experience of growing up with a hereditary, potentially devastating condition drove Mr Maxim to pursue science with a singular focus: finding a cure. His interest sharpened during high school and deepened through years of personal research and academic work.

The ‘A-Ha!’ Moment

In 2021, he encountered the breakthrough that reshaped his path. A landmark Nature study demonstrated that PKD could be reversed in mice using CRISPR gene-editing tools (the founder-to-be was a computational biology graduate student at Stanford at the time). This discovery convinced him that a cure was not only possible, but within reach.

It became apparent that while gene therapy could potentially reverse PKD, the key challenge was safely delivering the treatment directly to diseased kidney cells. To tackle this issue, he started Nephrogen in 2022, a biotech startup that leverages AI and advanced in vivo screening to design highly precise delivery systems for gene-editing medicines.

Engineering a Game-Changer

After three years of development, Mr Maxim reports that Nephrogen has engineered a delivery platform capable of transporting therapeutics to kidney cells up to 100x more efficiently than current FDA-approved vectors, less likely to trigger immune responses, and easier to scale. Nephrogen is addressing one of biotech’s greatest challenges: delivering gene therapies precisely and safely to target cells. Their NeFIND™ platform combines artificial intelligence with high-throughput in vivo screening to design next-generation gene delivery vectors. By overcoming the critical bottleneck of targeted delivery, Nephrogen is creating a feasible path to treating and potentially curing diseases that had been considered untreatable.

‘Since our incorporation in 2022, we’ve been collecting data about drug delivery. We have our PoC, as we’ve tested our delivery on mice, reaching 40-60% delivery rate, which is among the highest in the industry. We’ve also tested on monkeys and even unhealthy human kidneys removed from bodies. In our tests, we collaborate with 6 different pharma companies,’ Mr Maxim tells ITKeyMedia.

Given how the relevant data was naturally limited, the Nephrogen team had to gather almost all the needed data themselves from its tests, including those run in collaboration with partners from the pharma.

Ensuring Precision, Safety, and Accessibility

‘We can enforce kidney precision and minimize the risk of unintended gene delivery to other organs by testing on the whole body. We look at the delivery rate not only to kidneys but to other organs as well,’ Mr Maxim explains.

Nephrogen’s unique advantage stems from the fact that they specialize in kidneys and pancreas – the overlooked areas, while the possible competitors like Capsida, Dyno, or 4D Molecular Therapeutics tend to specialize and excel in brains and eyes. Seeing how Nephrogen’s dataset is kidney-specific, the company is poised to become the go-to source of the relevant data.

Present-day gene therapies are known to carry multimillion-dollar price tags, but Nephrogen envisions economically accessible curative genomic medicine, particularly for chronic kidney disease. This is due to simple maths: with better precision, Nephrogen can decrease the dosage of the medicine up to 100x by our calculations. This makes the treatment significantly more affordable. Moreover, smaller dosage means minimized immune response.

Nephrogen’s next milestone is advancing its innovative delivery system and a proprietary therapeutic into clinical trials, expected to start in 2027.the startup closed its USD 2M pre-seed round with ZAKA VC as an announced investor.

Onward to Clinical Trials

‘Nephrogen stands out through exceptional founder-market fit and a first-in-class approach that has the potential to redefine how kidney and pancreatic diseases are treated. Their category-defining platform aligns perfectly with our focus on visionary teams pushing the boundaries of biotech innovation,’ ZAKA VC’s co-founder and managing partner Ján Kasper. 

Given his personal battle with PKD, Mr Maxim plans to participate in the clinical study himself, underscoring both his commitment and the urgency of developing a treatment that could transform the lives of patients with genetic kidney disease.

Nephrogen’s mission represents a critical leap forward in the fight against genetic kidney and pancreatic diseases, addressing conditions that had been considered untreatable. By combining precision gene therapy with advanced delivery technology, the company is expanding the scientific frontier and making life-changing treatments more accessible and safer for patients. Nephrogen exemplifies how personal experience, innovative science, and strategic vision can converge to create hope for millions affected by chronic and hereditary diseases.