A biotech startup spun out of the College of Washington and led by veterans of Seattle-area biotech big Seagen has raised $4.4 million, a part of an ongoing seed spherical.
The leaders of the startup, Abacus Bioscience, say they’ve landed on a brand new, probably highly effective method to create vaccines to deal with folks with most cancers.
Anti-tumor vaccines have been examined for many years and a few are authorized, however they’ve proven restricted effectiveness.
“’Most cancers vaccine’ was a really soiled time period within the funding neighborhood for a very long time,” mentioned Che-Leung Legislation, Abacus chief scientific officer and co-founder. “Even immediately, folks nonetheless have a number of skepticism in regards to the ‘most cancers vaccine method.’”
Abacus is taking a novel method to focusing on tumor antigens, molecules on the floor of most cancers cells. Its experimental brokers have proven potential to generate a powerful immune response to such antigens, thereby prompting tumor killing, mentioned Legislation.
Legislation and co-founder Alan Wahl, CEO, have confronted skepticism earlier than.
They have been each early staff of Seattle-area biotech big Seagen, beforehand referred to as Seattle Genetics. The corporate was pioneering a brand new sort of remedy referred to as an antibody-drug conjugate, which delivers a toxin to cells by way of a linked antibody. Legislation mentioned when he went to offer displays, “folks would simply have a look at us and inform us ‘you guys are loopy.’”
Seagen is now a $25 billion firm with 4 authorized medication and its method types the idea of a number of different firms.
Legislation is hopeful that Abacus is on the cusp of one other field-changing know-how. The title Abacus is a play on “Ab”, shorthand for “antibody.”
Abacus’ method is to hyperlink a tumor antigen to an antibody fragment that acknowledges a molecule, referred to as CD180, on key immune cells. The agent prompts the immune cells, which orchestrate a robust immune response towards the antigen. The online impact is, ideally, an immune onslaught towards the tumor.
The method will also be used towards viruses and was examined by the corporate in unpublished primate research towards Hepatitis B virus. The info confirmed robust antibody and T cell responses, that are each wanted for a powerful immune impact, mentioned Wahl.
The early research have been carried out within the lab of co-founder and firm chairman Edward Clark, emeritus professor of microbiology and immunology on the College of Washington. They have been funded partly by a $400,000 small enterprise grant from the U.S. authorities in addition to grants from UW’s CoMotion and Washington state’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund.
“We had this concept some time in the past,” mentioned Wahl, who co-founded the corporate in 2015. “However over time we generated actually stable proof-of-concept knowledge that this was going to work earlier than we went ahead and requested others for cash to drive it ahead.” The info have been crucial to promote a brand new method to buyers throughout the present lull in biotech financing, he mentioned.
The debut of a number of profitable immunotherapy approaches additionally shifted Legislation’s personal view of the potential of most cancers vaccines. These embrace immunotherapy medication just like the “checkpoint inhibitor” Keytruda; cell remedy approaches like CAR T cells; and knowledge displaying the effectiveness of antibody-drug conjugates mixed with checkpoint inhibitors.
All of those approaches amplify or increase current anti-tumor immunity. In the event that they work, then it needs to be potential to construct a extremely efficient most cancers vaccine, reasoned Legislation.
Legislation was beforehand senior vp of translational drugs at Harpoon Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based immunotherapy startup. Previous to that he was at Seagen for 16 years, most just lately as senior director of preclinical analysis.
Wahl has served as a marketing consultant to biopharma firms for the final seven years and was beforehand vp of discovery at Ambrx and held analysis management roles at AbbVie, Biogen Idec, Trubion Prescription drugs, and Bristol Myers Squibb. At Seattle Genetics, he was senior director of molecular oncology and immunology.
Clark was additionally the co-founder of Genetic Techniques, an early Seattle biotech firm purchased by Bristol Myers Squibb in 1986, and of Trubion, which was acquired for at the least $96.8 million in 2010.
The opposite Abacus co-founders embrace Raj Dua, an government at Vincerx Pharma who held management roles at Trubion and Seattle-area Alder Biopharmaceuticals, which was purchased by Lundbeck for practically $2 billion; and Craig Philips, president of Seattle biotech firm Kineta and founding associate of Pack Ventures, a agency that funds firms related to the UW, which participated within the funding spherical.
Abacus is within the means of signing a lease for lab area in Seattle and is hiring immunologists and different scientists.
The startup is at the moment producing brokers towards two tumor antigens, one discovered on a wide range of stable tumor sorts and one other on cervical and head and neck cancers. Researchers will take a look at varied brokers in take a look at tubes, cells and rodents earlier than transferring into primates. The corporate can be utilizing new protein evaluation and engineering instruments, together with DeepMind’s AlphaFold, to create its vaccines.
Abacus’ method is just like others that hyperlink antigens to a unique antibody fragment, directed towards a molecule referred to as CD40. Abacus’ brokers could yield a broader immune response with fewer uncomfortable side effects, mentioned Legislation. CD40 is discovered on cells aside from immune cells so brokers directed towards it might have toxicity, he mentioned.
Washington Analysis Basis is main the funding spherical. Along with Pack Ventures, individuals are Alexandria Enterprise Investments, Sahsen and particular person buyers.