ArsenalBio has picked up $85m in funding to commercialise immunotherapy engineering research resulting from a collaboration that includes PICI and UCSF.
ArsenalBio, a US-based immunotherapy developer leveraging research originating from Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), attracted $85m of series A funding yesterday from investors including the institute and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)’s Investment Company.
Spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners also took part in the round, as did family office Euclidean Capital and venture capital firms Westlake Village BioPartners and Kleiner Perkins.
Founded earlier in 2019, ArsenalBio plans to develop T-cell therapies using computational design methods to imbue more complex DNA contents than first-generation equivalents which generally host a single transgene.
The aim is to facilitate more effective targeting of disease, with drugs which are safe, cost-effective and suited to a wider range of patient subtypes.
ArsenalBio will initially target solid organ and haematological cancers, leveraging its expertise in areas including genome engineering and machine learning.
ArsenalBio’s business builds on the work of a research consortium that includes Harvard Medical School, Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, UCSF and University of Pennsylvania.
– This article was amended on October 21 after Global University Venturing was made aware that the press release contained errors.
