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Diabetes startup Perle Bioscience crowdfunding $2M

An Atlanta startup that’s developing new drugs for reversing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes is raising $2 million through crowd funding.

Perle Bioscience Inc. says it’s found a proprietary peptide therapy that can generate new insulin producing cells, which is a breakthrough with the potential to benefit millions of people.

According to the American Diabetes Association, Type 1 diabetes is caused when the body does not produce insulin, which is required for the body to use glucose for energy. Type 1 is usually diagnosed in children and young adults and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. Type 2 is more common, and is caused when either the body does not produce enough insulin or the body’s cells ignore the insulin.

Perle’s founder is endocrinologist Dr.Claresa Levetan, a graduate of Emory University School of Medicine. Levetan previously co-founded and was lead scientist at a company called CureDM Group Holdings LLC. CureDM developed a compound for treating diabetes that was licensed to Sanofi-aventis in 2010. Levetan is the daughter of former DeKalb County CEO Liane Levetan.

To raise funds for its launch, Perle is usingBlazeFund, a new crowd funding company in Boston. Perle plans to further develop its new diabetes treatment and put them through clinical trials so they can be licensed or sold for commercialization.

Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle