About
Background
KaMoZo Biologics, Inc. is a biotechnology company founded in 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. It was formed to develop and commercialize a novel intracellular cancer therapy and a method for rapid intracellular drug delivery. Both technologies were invented by KaMoZo’s founders, Jacek Hawiger MD, Ph.D., and Jozef Zienkiewicz, Ph.D., at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1995 Hawiger’s group used their first cell-penetrating peptide (SN50) to successfully deliver across the plasma membrane an NF-κB1 (p50)-derived functional cargo to target one of the nuclear import adapter proteins, Importin alpha 5, to attenuate run-away inflammation. Unlike competitors, who used cationic sequences derived either from Trans-Activator of Transcription (TAT) protein from HIV-1, or Antennapedia protein (Antp) from Drosophila (fruit fly), Hawiger’s hydrophobic cell-penetrating sequences are derived from human proteins which prevent activation of adaptive immune system and potential drug resistance. The SN50 and its congeners cSN50 and cSN50.1 were tested in various preclinical models of inflammation mediated conditions/diseases such as endotoxemia, acute lung inflammation (ALI), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), atherosclerosis, inflammatory skin disease, polymicrobial sepsis, or Juvenile diabetes mellitus (T1D).
Currently, in collaboration with a CRO company, Ichor Life Sciences, Inc., and AAPPTec LLC, we aim to validate and commercialize our newest class of intracellular therapies, based on targeting importins α1, α3, and α4, as an effective treatment for cancer. We are particularly focused on treating types of cancer that lack specific antibody therapies, such as triple negative breast, pancreatic, colon, and prostate cancers. We also aim to advance the field of intracellular drug delivery for biologic and synthetic therapeutics such as gene, protein, peptide, or RNA vaccines.
Pipeline
| nuclear import inhibitors | species-specific cell penetrating peptides for rapid intracellular drug delivery | ||
| in human medicine | in veterinary medicine | ||
| # of sequences identified in in silico study | 1,095 | 2,685 | 8,606 |
| # of sequences tested in vitro | 45 (4.1%) | 20 (0.7%) | – |
| # of sequences with activity | 18 | 9 | – |
| # of sequences selected for development | 9 | 7 | – |