With an initial €8 million (US$8.4 million) in seed funding in the bank, Tessellate Bio has emerged from stealth to tackle cancers that rely on the less well explored synthetic lethality mechanism of alternative lengthening of telomeres.

Just over a year since the last anti-nerve growth factor (NGF) antibody program was axed, the target is poised for a revival, with Levicept Ltd. announcing it has completed recruitment to a phase II trial of LEVI-04 in the control of chronic pain caused by osteoarthritis.

With an initial €8 million (US$8.4 million) in seed funding in the bank, Tessellate Bio has emerged from stealth to tackle cancers that rely on the less well explored synthetic lethality mechanism of alternative lengthening of telomeres.

Arriving on the gene therapy scene with an undisclosed seed funding sum, Alveogene is tackling respiratory diseases with high unmet need via a next-generation lentiviral delivery platform to advance into the clinic a candidate for rare inherited disorder alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Launching a company based on knowledge that “the fundamental principle that most people hold to be true is off by a trillion” is a rare opportunity, said Jake Rubens, co-founder and president of Quotient Therapeutics Inc., a company that emerged from stealth this week, backed by two years of platform development and a $50 million investment from Flagship Pioneering.

Launching a company based on knowledge that “the fundamental principle that most people hold to be true is off by a trillion” is a rare opportunity, said Jake Rubens, co-founder and president of Quotient Therapeutics Inc., a company that emerged from stealth this week, backed by two years of platform development and a $50 million investment from Flagship Pioneering.

Etcembly emerged from stealth mode in August with something it regards as seemingly impossible: A machine learning platform that has the ability to predict and engineer – at never-seen-before scale and speed – T-cell receptors (TCR) that enable bispecific T-cell engager antibodies targeting cancer cells to be produced.

Newco T-Therapeutics Ltd. has raised £48 million (US$59 million) in a series A to advance development of T-cell receptors generated by its transgenic mouse platform for the treatment of solid tumors, autoimmune diseases and infections. In cancer, the specificity of T-Therapeutics’ molecules will overcome shortcomings of immuno-oncology drugs such as checkpoint inhibitors that stimulate a response to some cancer neo-antigens but are unable to recognize cancer-specific self-antigens.