Seattle-based Kineta, Inc. has announced a program-related investment from the Boston-based Iacocca Family Foundation to advance the development of a preclinical autoimmune drug candidate — ShK-186 — and its applications in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes mellitus.

While the foundation has not released the amount of the investment, the Seattle Times reports that it is less than $1 million. The investment will be used to support the work of University of California, Irvine professors K. George Chandy and Jonathan Lakey, who have advanced innovative protocols for the use of ShK-186 technology, which works by selectively targeting effector memory T-cells, the white blood cells responsible for inflammation in multiple autoimmune diseases. The funds also will be used to support Kineta's efforts to develop a drug candidate for other autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis.

Established in 1984 by Lee A. Iacocca, the foundation supports diabetes research in honor of Iacocca's late wife, Mary K. Iacocca, who died of complications from the disease. To date, the foundation has awarded more than $30 million in diabetes research grants, including a $3 million equity investment in Silicon Valley biotech company Bayhill Therapeutics in 2008.

"The [foundation] is deeply impressed with the high caliber science imbued in Kineta's program," said Iacocca Family Foundation president Kathryn Iacocca Hentz. "We also see tremendous vision to chart a course that may one day eliminate insulin dependence for patients."