HOPO Therapeutics develops best-in-class oral treatments for heavy metal poisoning, including environmental pollutants like lead and mercury, radioactive materials from a nuclear disaster or dirty bomb, and emerging contaminants such as the rare earth elements used in the electronics, batteries, and other energy technologies of the future.
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Julian Rees
Julian Rees is CEO and co-founder of HOPO Therapeutics. As a bioinorganic and radiochemist, his expertise is centered on the behavior of metal ions in biological systems, and he is working to create safe and effective treatments for heavy metal toxicity. Rees received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, and he has held research fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and UC Berkeley.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
After decades of industrial use, heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury have become persistent environmental pollutants. Lead poisoning alone accounts for almost half of the ~2 million deaths yearly caused by chemical exposure, and over a third of the world’s children currently live with lead poisoning. While the use of some of these metals has been curtailed, increasing reliance on rare earth metals for technology and energy applications is driving a rapid increase in their presence in the environment. The health effects of rare earth metals are not well-known, although they are understood to be toxic.
Technology Vision
The most effective treatment for people exposed to heavy metals is to safely remove those heavy metals from the body. HOPO Therapeutics is developing best-in-class, orally available chelating agents that can accomplish this goal for a wide range of heavy metals, and do so without depleting the body’s essential mineral ions like calcium, zinc, and iron. This selectivity is a transformative advantage over existing chelating agents and can enable the development of safe and effective therapies for patients with a wide range of exposures, who previously had no treatment available.
Potential for Impact
Hundreds of millions of children worldwide live with lead poisoning, primarily due to environmental exposure from drinking water, soil, and air pollution. Nearly all will experience lifelong health consequences, including decreased cognitive function and an increased risk of kidney and cardiovascular disease. Lead poisoning at high exposure levels is fatal, and lead stored in the bones is released during pregnancy, becoming a source of exposure to the developing child. There are currently no useful treatments available. New therapies for heavy metal poisoning are urgently needed, as harmful exposure to rare earth metals is increasing due to their increasing use in technology and energy applications.
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HOPO Therapeutics
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@hopotx