Philadelphia-based Tolerance Bio, a biopharmaceutical company focused on manipulating immune tolerance via the thymus to address various immune-mediated diseases, recently raised $17.2 million during a seed financing round.
Investors included individuals in the biotechnology industry; BioAdvance, an early-stage life sciences fund with a focus on the mid-Atlantic region; Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a seed and early-stage investor; Columbus Venture Partners, a Spanish venture capital firm focused on biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies; Criteria Bio Ventures, a life sciences venture fund; and Sessa Capital, an investment company.
“Defeating immune diseases has been the lifelong quest of this exceptional team we have assembled, with patients and their families always front and center for us,” Dr. Francisco Leon, Tolerance Bio co-founder and CEO, said. “We intend to rapidly advance and validate our pioneering concepts in a rare disease and then assess proof-of-concept in multiple major indications, advancing these novel therapeutics to target immune disease at its core.”
Tolerance Bio is developing an allogeneic thymus induced pluripotent stem cell-based cell therapy platform initially developed at the University of Colorado and the University of Florida. The company also is developing pharmacological thymus therapies to address immune-mediated diseases caused by abnormalities in immune tolerance.
The thymus, an organ in the chest, plays a crucial role in training T lymphocytes (T cells) to defend against threats such as infections and cancers while preventing autoimmunity.