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Financing accelerates clinical validation and commercial readiness, as circular RNAs emerge as a new category of brain-derived blood biomarkers with best-in-class performance

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Circular Genomics, Inc., the world-leading developer of circular RNA-based precision medicine tools for neurology and psychiatry, today announced the successful closure of a $15 million Series A financing round. The financing was led by Mountain Group Partners, with participation from Poplar Grove Investors, HIP Fund, and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF). This transformative capital will accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of Circular Genomics’ proprietary circRNA biomarker platform for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), advancing the company’s mission to reshape the standard of care for all neurological disorders.

“This Series A financing represents a pivotal milestone in our journey to transform precision neurology, including Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and patient care,” said Paul Sargeant, Chief Executive Officer of Circular Genomics. “The strong support from our world-class investors validates the breakthrough potential of our circular RNA platform and underscores the urgent need for accessible, comprehensive blood-based biomarkers that can detect Alzheimer’s biology at the earliest stages. With this capital, we are positioned to advance our clinical programs, expand our world-class team, and bring our first transformative test in Alzheimer’s disease to patients and physicians who desperately need better diagnostic tools.”

The Series A proceeds will be deployed strategically to advance multiple high-priority initiatives:

• Clinical Validation: Expanding clinical validation studies to demonstrate the platform’s utility across diverse patient populations and healthcare settings
• Platform Innovation: Enhancing the circRNA biomarker platform to expand beyond Alzheimer’s disease into other neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders
• Strategic Partnerships: Establishing collaborations with leading academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and diagnostic service providers
• Team Expansion: Recruiting world-class talent across clinical development, regulatory affairs, commercial operations, and scientific research

The Unmet Need for Early Alzheimer’s Detection

Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 7 million Americans, with diagnosis often delayed by 2-3 years after symptom onset. It is the most prevalent type of dementia, accounting for up to 80% of all dementia cases, making it the leading cause of cognitive decline among older adults. Despite this prominence, approximately 75% of all dementia cases go undiagnosed, and among patients with diagnosed dementia, roughly 50% receive no formal diagnosis. Traditional diagnostic methods, including PET imaging and cerebrospinal fluid testing, are expensive, invasive, and not widely accessible. The recent approval of disease-modifying therapies has created an unprecedented urgency for accurate, accessible blood-based biomarkers that can identify patients at the earliest disease stages—when interventions may have the most profound impact on disease trajectory.

A Transformative Solution: Circular RNA as a New Class of Blood Biomarkers

Alzheimer’s disease is now recognized as a biologically detectable condition long before clinical symptoms appear—yet current diagnostic solutions face significant limitations in accessibility, specificity, and pathway-level resolution. Despite recent advances, there remains a critical need for biomarkers that capture the full complexity of disrupted molecular pathways driving AD pathogenesis.

Circular Genomics’ circRNA platform directly addresses this gap.  Circular RNAs—highly stable, brain-enriched non-coding RNAs—regulate many of the core biological and pathogenic pathways altered in AD, including neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, synaptic dysfunction, neural plasticity, and amyloid/tau pathology. The company’s generated data demonstrated:

• Robust prediction models benchmarked against CSF, amyloid PET, and leading plasma biomarkers
• Identification of pre-symptomatic individuals at risk for progression to symptomatic AD
• Specificity for AD relative to other dementias, addressing a major barrier in early-stage diagnosis

This unique molecular signature reflects disease biology across the full AD continuum and provides a holistic, real-time window into brain health unprecedented among existing diagnostic modalities.  “The convergence of disease-modifying therapies and innovative blood-based diagnostics is creating a transformational moment in Alzheimer’s disease care,” added Andrew Lechleiter, Chief Executive Officer at Poplar Grove Investors, LLC. “Circular Genomics’ circRNA platform stands out for its ability to capture the complex biology of Alzheimer’s disease across multiple pathogenic pathways, which can provide clinicians with actionable insights, potentially even before memory and thinking issues emerge, that can fundamentally change patient care trajectories. The team’s progress in building a best-in-class biomarker signature, coupled with their strategic vision for market development, gives us tremendous confidence in their ability to execute and positively impact the lives of people affected by Alzheimer’s disease.”

Robust Data Generating a Potentially New Standard of Care

Building on the company’s recent presentation at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) Conference, where findings demonstrated the platform’s potential to shift AD diagnosis from a reactive, late-stage process to an early, proactive, biologically grounded assessment, Circular Genomics is now positioned to deliver a new class of precision neurology diagnostics.

The company’s whole-blood transcriptomic models capture a broad landscape of disease-relevant circRNA signatures, enabling:

• Earlier detection before cognitive decline becomes clinically apparent
• More precise patient stratification for disease-modifying therapies
• Improved longitudinal monitoring of disease progression and therapeutic response
• Integration into primary care, expanding access to early intervention

These capabilities have the potential to fundamentally transform AD patient management—from identification of early disease biology and risk assessment to treatment selection and disease monitoring. By providing an accurate, accessible, and comprehensive molecular assessment of Alzheimer’s disease, Circular Genomics empowers physicians to identify patients at the earliest stages of the disease—even before symptoms appear—and match them with appropriate preventative interventions or disease-modifying therapies.

“Circular Genomics represents a rare opportunity to invest in a truly transformative diagnostic platform that addresses one of healthcare’s most pressing unmet needs,” said Joe Cook III, Managing Director at Mountain Group Partners. “The company’s circular RNA technology provides a fundamentally different and more comprehensive view of Alzheimer’s disease biology than existing biomarkers. Combined with the team’s world-class scientific expertise and the compelling clinical data they have generated; we believe Circular Genomics is uniquely positioned to become the leader in precision neurology diagnostics. We are honored to support their mission to enable earlier detection and better treatment outcomes for millions of patients.”

About Circular Genomics

Circular Genomics is the world-leading developer of circular RNA-based precision medicine tools, data and diagnostics for precision neurology and psychiatry. Leveraging exclusive licenses and pioneering technologies in circular RNA, Circular Genomics is aiming to reshape the standard of care for the early identification of neurological and psychiatric diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder. Initial products include assays to assess and tailor optimal patient management care pathways resulting in more personalized and effective delivery of care. The company’s proprietary circRNA biomarker platform integrates advanced transcriptomics to generate sophisticated models of disease risk and progression, providing comprehensive insights into the multiple disrupted pathways critical to disease biology and pathology. For additional details, please visit www.circulargenomics.com. 

SOURCE Circular Genomics

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