UT Southwestern has formed central nervous system diseases treatment developer Taysha Gene Therapies with executives who previously worked for OSU's Avexis.

Taysha Gene Therapies, a US-based gene therapy developer focused on severe central nervous system (CNS) diseases, launched yesterday with $30m in seed funding to commercialise research from University of Texas Southwestern.
Investment fund Nolan Capital and venture capital firm PBM Capital co-led the seed round.
Taysha Gene Therapies is working on gene therapies for monogenic diseases in which disruption to a single gene type universal to all human cells causes dire effects in the central nervous system.
Its pipeline consists of 15 viral vector-based programs in addition to an option for four further assets.
Taysha’s first asset, a gene replacement therapy for the CNS disease GM2-Gangliosidosis, is expected to begin clinical development later in 2020 under the codename TGTX-101.
The spinout hopes four further candidates will enter the clinic by the end of 2021, for indications such as SURF1 deficiency, Rett syndrome and SLC6A1 haploinsufficiency.
Taysha extends research from UT Southwestern’s Gene Therapy Program and Department of Pediatrics.
The university will continue to assist Taysha under a strategic partnership agreement, conducting discovery and preclinical studies on its behalf and providing its regulatory-standard drug production capacity.
Taysha retains responsibility for clinical-stage research and setting out its regulatory strategy, as well as commercialisation activities such as commercial-grade manufacturing.
The company reunites PBM Capital and management from Ohio State University-founded neurological gene therapy developer Avexis, acquired bypharmaceutical firm Novartis for $8.7bn in 2018.
Claire Aldridge, associate vice-president of commercialisation and business development at UT Southwestern Medical Center, said: “Together with Taysha, we are merging cutting-edge translational research, hands-on clinical care, and proven regulatory and commercial expertise – ultimately creating an engine for new cures.
“In a short amount of time, I have already witnessed how quickly and efficiently we can leverage our collective expertise and resources to advance new gene therapies to the patients who so desperately need them.”