UNC-Chapel Hill spinout G1 Therapeutics has $12.5 million in the bank to push its lead therapy candidate after closing on a Series A round of institutional financing.

G1, once known as G-Zero Therapeutics, is developing a treatment to prevent damage to bone marrow from radiation or chemotherapy. The technology is also being studied as a way to protect the kidney.

G1 is developing technology discovered in the laboratory of Norman Sharpless, G1’s co-founder and a professor of medicine and genetics at UNC’s school of medicine.

The Chapel Hill-based drug startup landed MedImmune, Hatteras Venture Partners and Mountain Group Capital as investors in funding that was announced Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Michael Gutch and Ron Laufer of MedImmune will join the G1 board.

G! plans to file an investigational new drug filing for the lead compound before the end of next year.

“G1 Therapeutics has made significant progress since Hatteras provided seed financing in September 2012 that enabled the company to select a lead molecule and complete the majority of pre-IND-required studies,” said Christy Shaffer, the executive chair of G1 Therapeutics’ b and a partner at Durham-based Hatteras. “We are excited to have MedImmune Ventures partner with Hatteras and G1 in order to accelerate the lead candidate toward clinical testing.”

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has supported G1. The firm also has received a number of federal grants, including a National Cancer Institute Fast Track Grant in 2012 for that lead potential indication.

In 2011, G1 won a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through the Small Business Innovation Research program. The firm landed a $60,000 Phase I grant in 2009. Its technology is focused on “radiomitigants” that could mitigate damage done by radiation. The company noted that “currently, no effective therapy exists to mitigate bone marrow toxicity of radiation when given after radiation exposure.” Damage to the bone marrow leads to reduction in blood cell production.

“Ron and I are delighted to be joining the board,” Gutch said in a statement. “We look forward to working alongside Hatteras and Mountain Group to support the innovative and elegant science from G1’s founders, Dr. Ned Sharpless of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Dr. Kwok Wong of the Belfer Institute of Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to address the serious complications of myelosuppression in patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.”

The company launched in 2008.