| Name | Title | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|
Sapan Shenoy |
Senior Director Information Technology | Profile |
Anthony Mancini |
EVP & Chief Operating Officer | Profile |
OncoSec Medical Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing its ImmunoPulse immunotherapy to treat solid tumors. OncoSec Medical’s core technology leverages a proprietary electroporation platform to enhance the local delivery and uptake of DNA IL-12 and other DNA-based immune-modulating agents. Clinical studies of ImmunoPulse have demonstrated an acceptable safety profile and preliminary evidence of anti-tumor activity in the treatment of various skin cancers as well as the potential to initiate a systemic immune response without the systemic toxicities associated with other treatments. OncoSec’s clinical programs currently include three Phase 2 trials targeting metastatic melanoma Merkel cell carcinoma and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma conducted in collaboration with several prominent academic medical centers. As the company continues to evaluate ImmunoPulse in these indications it is also investigating additional indications and combination therapeutic approaches.
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.
Alberta Conservation Association is a Edmonton, AB-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Metabolix, Inc. is a Cambridge, MA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Rubius Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new era of cellular medicines. Our proprietary RED PLATFORM™ was designed to genetically engineer and culture Red Cell Therapeutics™ that are selective, potent and ready to-use cellular therapies for the potential treatment of several diseases across multiple therapeutic areas. Our initial focus is to advance RCT™ product candidates for the treatment cancer and autoimmune diseases by leveraging two distinct therapeutic modalities — potent cell-cell interaction and tolerance induction. We are currently enrolling patients in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of RTX-240; the trial has two Phase 1 arms enrolling adult patients with advanced solid tumors: an ongoing monotherapy dose escalation arm in adults with relapsed/refractory or locally advanced solid tumors and a combination therapy dose escalation arm with pembrolizumab in adults with relapsed/refractory or locally advanced solid tumors. In April 2022, the combination arm with pembrolizumab was expanded to focus on non-small cell lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma patients. We are also enrolling patients in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of RTX-224 for the treatment of patients with certain advanced solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer, cutaneous melanoma, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, urothelial (bladder) carcinoma and triple-negative breast cancer.