Based in Cambridge, Mass., the firm has broken away from the usual drugs, like Pfizer’s Aricept, that slow the symptoms but don’t address the base-level process of the disease. Most of these treatments have honed in on the poisonous plaques that build up in the brain leading to memory loss. But Satori decided to target the illness at an earlier stage, before the plaques even appear. Roughly, its lead compound is designed to inhibit toxic proteins without damaging surrounding brain tissue. The company says it’s also working with multiple researchers looking for early diagnostic signals, including traces of certain proteins in the bloodstream.

Of course this is very promising news for the one in eight Americans over age 65 affected. But there are a few hangups — especially when it comes to safety. For instance, the average Alzheimer’s patient is usually in his or her 60s and already taking a variety of medications for blood pressure, diabetes and the like. This means whatever product Satori arrives at will have to take pretty much all potential drug interactions into account. The company has set only a tentative timeline for clinical trials in 2010, but says the treatment has already made it through several tough tests on animals.

Its other big news is the selection of Jeffrey Ives, former senior vice president at Pfizer, as its new chief executive. In his former post, he led teams developing oncology and nervous system treatments.

The recent investment round was co-led by InterWest Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Prospect Venture Partners, and included PureTech Ventures and Satori’s founders. It raised $3 million in seed money back in 2005.

• Follica pulls out $5.5M for hair loss (release)
• WuXi PharmaTech to acquire AppTec Lab for $151 million (release)
• U.S. Venture Partners names Laurence Lasky a venture partner (PDF release)
• Burrill & Co. promotes several life-science VCs (release)
• SV Life Sciences promotes Darren Black to partner (release)

Follica pulls out $5.5M for hair loss – Boston’s Follica, a biotech that aims to reverse hormone-related hair loss, raised $5.5 million in a first funding round. Investors included Interwest Partners and PureTech Ventures.

Follica was founded by a team of researchers from Harvard, UCSF and the University of Pennsylvania to commercialize a research finding reported last May. In that study, scientists found that rats could generate new hair follicles after suffering open skin wounds, a discovery that suggested the regenerative powers of skin cells may be much greater than previously believed when it comes to hair regrowth. (This Scientific American piece summarizes the finding.)

The startup hasn’t said exactly what approach it intends to take — heck, its Web site is still hosted on Puretech Ventures’ site — but presumably its scientists are looking into isolating the growth factors that encourage some skin cells to revert into follicular cells and incorporating them into some sort of topical salve or gel. It’s also not clear whether anyone trying this sort of product might have to abrade or otherwise injury their skin first, a requirement that might dampen enthusiasm for miracle hair regrowth. At the very least, it should give new meaning to the phrase, “It’s painful to be beautiful.”

WuXi PharmaTech to acquire AppTec Lab for $151 million – China’s WuXi PharmaTech, a publicly traded contract-research organization, agreed to acquire AppTec Laboratory Services of St. Paul, Minn., for roughly $163 million. The release is here.

The purchase price includes $151 million in cash plus the assumption of AppTech debt of roughly $11.7 million. AppTec does outsourced research, testing and manufacturing for life-sciences companies around the world.