US-based T-cell therapy developer GentiBio closed a $20m seed round yesterday co-led by Novartis Venture Fund, the corporate venturing unit for pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The round was co-led with healthcare-focused investment firm OrbiMed and investment manager RA Capital Management.
GentiBio is developing drugs intended to restore immune system function through regulatory T-cells engineered by the startup. The approach could lead to treatments for autoimmune, autoinflammatory, alloimmune and allergy-based diseases.
The company has licensed technology from Seattle Children’s Hospital and Benaroya Research Institute as well as the Israel-based Migal Galilee Research Institute, according to co-founder and CEO Adel Nada.
Nada said: “The technologies licensed from these premier research institutions are mature and well-differentiated, and will be further optimised in sponsored research collaborations with the scientific teams that discovered them to advance novel and potent therapeutics with the potential to treat and cure serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.