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Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic, life-threatening disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, 30,000 new cases are estimated every year with half of those cases diagnosed in young children. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the patient`s immune system goes awry and attacks and destroys the pancreatic beta cells. Beta cells are responsible for regulating blood sugar (glucose) levels by producing precise amounts of the essential hormone insulin. The discovery of injectable insulin in the 1920s changed T1D from a uniformly fatal disease with a life expectancy of months to one that could be carefully managed for decades through multiple daily blood glucose measurements and insulin injections. However, insulin injections are not a cure and patients face a lifetime of difficult disease management and serious complications including kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. Despite nearly a century passing since the discovery of insulin, insulin injection remains the only treatment available to patients. Semma Therapeutics was founded to develop transformative therapies for patients who currently depend on insulin injections. Recent work in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton led to the discovery of a method to generate billions of functional, insulin-producing beta cells in the laboratory. These cells develop in islet-like clusters grown from stem cells. Initial preclinical work in animal models of diabetes has shown that transplantation of these cells are sufficient to control blood glucose levels. This breakthrough technology has been exclusively licensed to Semma Therapeutics for the development of a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Ongoing research at Semma Therapeutics is focused on combining these proprietary cells with a state-of-the-art cell delivery and immune protection strategy that can protect these cells from the patient`s immune system and allow the beta cells to function as they do in non-diabetic individuals. Implantation of the beta cell-filled device has the potential to provide a true replacement for the missing beta cells in a diabetic patient and would not require patient immunosuppression. Semma Therapeutics is working to bring this new therapeutic option to the clinic and improve the lives of patients with diabetes.
Kinnate Biopharma Inc. is a clinical-stage precision oncology company focused on expanding on the promise of targeted therapies for those battling cancer. The company is developing medicines for known oncogenic drivers where there are no approved targeted drugs and to overcome the limitations of marketed cancer therapies, such non-responsiveness or acquired and intrinsic resistance. Kinnate has two lead clinical programs being studied in solid tumors with RAF, NRAS and FGFR-driven alterations, and is rapidly progressing a pipeline of additional small molecule drug candidates as part of the Kinnate Discovery Engine.
Aura Biosciences is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing virus-like drug conjugates (VDC), a novel class of therapies, for the treatment of multiple oncology indications. At Aura, our mission is to deliver meaningful therapeutic benefit to a range of cancer indications with high unmet need in which we believe we can establish a new standard of care. We are driven by our passion and commitment to science and the patients battling cancer who are relying on us to pioneer these new therapies. We are focusing the initial development of our VDC technology platform to treat tumors of high unmet need in ocular and urologic oncology. Belzupacap sarotalocan (bel-sar), our first VDC candidate, is being developed for the first-line treatment of early-stage choroidal melanoma, a rare disease with no drugs approved. Beyond early-stage choroidal melanoma, we are developing bel-sar in additional ocular oncology indications, including choroidal metastasis. Leveraging our VDCs` broad tumor targeting capabilities, we have also initiated a clinical program in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, or NMIBC, our first non-ocular solid tumor indication.
The THOR Group is a Manhattan Beach, CA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Established in 1960, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) is a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan for Ontario`s hospital and community-based healthcare sector. We serve more than 435,000 members who provide valued healthcare services at more than 630 employers across the province. At HOOPP, we exist to provide a stable and reliable pension for our members that starts in retirement and is paid for life. As one of Canada`s largest and most respected pension plans, HOOPP`s net assets reached $103.7 billion at the end of 2022 and our funded status remained strong at 117%. HOOPP`s core values - professional, accountable, collaborative, compassionate and trustworthy - guide our every interaction with our members, employers and employees. We`ve become one of Canada`s leading pension plans by consistently challenging ourselves and embracing innovation. From our unique investment management approach to our innovative technology and thought-provoking research, we constantly seek to push the boundaries, and we do this by hiring passionate, forward-thinking people. Our high-performance culture is founded on collaboration, respect and belonging. HOOPP is an equal opportunity employer and we`re proud of our diversity. We select applicants for employment solely on the basis of their qualifications. Should you require accommodation because of a disability during the recruitment and selection process, please contact our Human Resources team. We will be happy to consult with you so that arrangements can be made for reasonable accommodation.