Mitokinin is a biotechnology company - previously located in New York, NY, but moved to San Francisco to be resident in JLabs in that location - is structured around a medicinal chemistry effort to generate kinetin analogs optimized for activating PINK1, the firm organized around development of a novel class of kinase-targeted neo-substrates for the treatment of neurodegenerative and mitochondrial diseases. Mitokinen's neo-substrates serve as alternative phospho-donors for the specific kinases that can accept them - and significantly boost the activity of the active-form kinase t- hereby reducing the risk of off targets, enabling physicians to be more substrate specific and treat in an enhanced way. The plan had been to develop the analog or optimized variants to treat Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. In the early Spring 2021, it was announced that AbbVie - a leading global biopharmaceutical company had purchased exclusive right to acquire Mitokinin following completion of IND enabling studies on Mitokinin's lead PINK1 compound based on technology discovered at UCSF by Mitokinin co-founders. That deal was consummtaed shorly thereafter.
