Notch Therapeutics is commercializing technologies developed in the laboratories of Juan-Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, left, chairman of Notch’s scientific advisory board, and scientific director Peter Zandstra. (Photos from the University of Toronto and Notch)
New financing: Notch Therapeutics has raised a Series A round of $ 85 million, bringing its total funding to $ 91 million. The biotech company was founded in 2018 and is developing stem cell-derived immunotherapies for cancer.
Seattle Expansion: The startup has offices in Vancouver, BC and Toronto and will use some of the new capital to open a facility in Seattle, adding another player to the city’s burgeoning biotech scene. Notch currently has 35 employees, with plans to increase that number to 100 by the end of 2022. About 20 of those jobs will be in Seattle, where it is opening a research lab, with the possibility of expanding into regulatory and clinical roles.
Biotechnological innovation: The company is developing a biotech platform that can take renewable stem cell lines and manipulate their development into T cells and other types of immune cells used in therapies. The company’s Engineered Thymic Niche platform is so named because it mimics the actions of the human thymus, causing cells to differentiate into specialized cell types.
Companies like California’s Fate Therapeutics are also developing T cells from similar types of stem cells, but Notch officials said their technology is special because of its ability to control T cell development without using a separate feeder cell line. or animal reagents.
The startup is collaborating with Allogene Therapeutics to develop a treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma.
Founders pedigree: Notch Therapeutics is commercializing technologies developed in the laboratories of Juan-Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, chairman of Notch’s scientific advisory board, and scientific director Peter Zandstra. In addition to his role at Notch, Zúñiga-Pflücker is a researcher at the Sunnybrook Research Institute and a department chair at the University of Toronto. Zandstra is a professor at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto, and was a co-founder of Excellthera and the Commercialization Center for Regenerative Medicine.
David Main is Chairman and CEO of Notch. He was a co-founder of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals.
Immunotherapy hotbed: Seattle is home to numerous institutions that develop immunotherapy treatments. That includes the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which also jointly host the Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic, as well as the Benaroya Research Institute and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Local immunotherapy biotechnology companies include Umoja Biopharma, Sana Biotechnology, Chinook Therapeutics, Kineta, Alpine Immune Sciences, Adaptive Biotechnologies, and others.
Investor interest: Funding was led by an unnamed healthcare focused investment fund, with participation from existing investors Allogene Therapeutics, Lumira Ventures and CCRM Enterprises Holdings, as well as new investors EcoR1 Capital, Casdin Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Amplitude Ventures and an undisclosed signature.
“We have great confidence in Notch’s high-caliber management team and the rigorous science behind its research programs,” said Dr. David Chang, Allogene President and CEO and a member of Notch’s board of directors.
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