Eterna Regeneratives Raises $4M for Enamel Repair

Khaled Eissa, Co-founder and CEO at Eterna Regeneratives.

Eterna Regeneratives has closed a $4 million seed round led by Hoxton Ventures and The Venture Collective to develop biomaterials for enamel repair and bone regeneration. The UK startup, founded in 2024 by Khaled Eissa and Dr. Sherif Elsharkawy, is beginning with the $43 billion global oral care market. A spin-out from King’s College London, Eterna is developing a patented keratin-based material intended to help restore damaged tooth enamel. The company plans to incorporate the material into products already on the market as it works toward its first commercial launch.

From Research to Product Development

Eterna’s platform stems from research by Elsharkawy and Dr. Sara Gamea, his PhD student, into using keratin, a protein found in human hair, skin and wool, to regrow damaged tooth enamel. Studies of the patented material drew attention from national and international media before the company had a commercial product.

The company is now building a pipeline of material technologies around the slow and irreversible loss of tooth enamel. Unlike many other tissues, enamel cannot naturally regenerate after it is lost, a process associated with hypersensitivity, cavities, tooth pain and deterioration of teeth.

Khaled Eissa, Co-founder and CEO at Eterna Regeneratives, said:

“The only way to truly heal the human body is to help it heal itself. We wanted to create a product that is readily available, scalable and has the potential to deliver long-term results.”

Keratin Based Enamel Repair

The company’s material can be added to toothpaste, positioning enamel regeneration as a potentially cost-effective alternative to approaches that strengthen existing enamel or fill damaged teeth. Eterna says fluoride offers minor strengthening but does not rebuild lost enamel, while resin fillings have a finite lifespan and may require replacement.

In vitro experiments on extracted tooth samples showed a new enamel-like layer forming on the tooth surface as the material stimulated a mineralization process, Eterna said. Treated samples showed hardness and mechanical strength restored close to levels of native, healthy enamel. The technology has also shown capacity to reduce abrasion and treat decay, according to the company.

Dr. Sherif Elsharkawy, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder at Eterna Regeneratives, said:

“This investment lets us move from lab-based proof of concept to real-world products at pace. It is a validation of years of research, and a step change in how quickly we can bring this technology to patients.”

Investor Support for Expansion

The seed investment is intended to support Eterna’s move from research into commercialization, while broadening its biomaterials work into tissue and bone applications.

Hussein Kanji, Partner at Hoxton Ventures, said:

“Eterna is the kind of company we like to back early: powerful, defensible science with a capital-efficient route to market. Its technology has the potential to transform oral care from managing enamel loss to actually repairing it, while opening the door to broader applications in tissue and bone regeneration. Khaled and Sherif are the right scientific team to bring this from the lab and to global scale.”

Building Toward Bone Regeneration

Beyond oral care, Eterna’s second application will target bone regeneration using the same patented knowledge. The company said preliminary tests suggest its keratin-based technology could support the regeneration of strong, healthy bone.

Eterna has expanded into a new lab space in Canary Wharf and is growing its research and commercial teams. It is also building relationships with oral-care companies, professional partners and consumer-health groups as it develops its intellectual property pipeline and prepares products for the mass market.

Gina Kirch, Founding Partner at The Venture Collective, said:

“Eterna is looking beyond basic healing to achieve complete tissue restoration. For too long, patients have had to settle for treatments that manage damage rather than repair it. Eterna is revolutionizing this standard of care, harnessing its patented keratin technology to help the body regenerate itself more fully than existing options allow.”