Sana has emerged with funding from investors including F-Prime Capital, Arch and Flagship Pioneering to develop genetically modified hypoimmogenic stem cells.

Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development yesterday announced it had executed a licence agreement with its US-based spinout Sana Biotechnology for stem cell medicines resistant to immune system rejection. Sana Biotechnology launched in January 2019 with an undisclosed sum of funding from F-Prime Capital, a branch of financial services group Fidelity, as well as from VC firms including Arch Venture Partners and Flagship Pioneering. The company is targeting the development of hypoimmunogenic stem cells to facilitate cell therapies that can be transplanted into the patient to replace damaged or absent cells without triggering an immune system attack response. Hypoimmunogenic stem cells are genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cells designed to be concealed from the immune system, which attacks foreign bodies it believes to be malignant. Sana’s modifications would limit the genetic production of proteins that denote a threat, instead bolstering the transmission of benign signals through the output of so-called tolerogenic factors. Research has indicated this approach could yield heart muscle cardiomyocytes and blood vessel endothelial cells, as well as liver cells and pancreatic beta cells, the latter of which are responsible for insulin production. Sana Biotechnology’s co-founders include Chad Cowan, a former associate professor in Harvard University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Richard Mulligan, emeritus Mallinckrodt professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. Cowan is now a faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Sana Biotechnology has also licensed genome editing technology from Harvard on a non-exclusive basis. The spinout received funding through the university’s Stem Cell Institute and Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, though it was unclear whether this constituted any equity.

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