Tranquis Therapeutics

Tranquis Therapeutics is a San Mateo, California based private company discovering and developing novel therapeutics focused on neurodegenerative diseases.

The company’s novel therapeutic approach stems from groundbreaking research at the Stanford laboratory of Professor Edgar Engleman, MD, Tranquis’ scientific founder, which indicates that myeloid immune cell dysfunction underlies a variety of nervous system disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and age-related neuropathology.

They were among the first to discover that altered metabolism of myeloid cells also underlies a variety of nervous system disorders. It is now understood that neurodegenerative diseases begin with a specific injury or defect that results in the deposition or accumulation of toxic substances which induces an inflammatory myeloid cell response. Myeloid cells such as brain resident microglia and peripheral macrophages normally take up and break down everything from dying cells to foreign matter, but if overwhelmed can become inflamed and secrete a range of tissue-damaging molecules. Tranquis’ initial therapeutic candidates target a master metabolic pathway which is downregulated in myeloid cells in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.