Toronto, ON (Press Release) – Notch Thera­peutics, a com­pany in the emerging field of gene-modified T cell ther­apy, has been created to com­mer­cial­ize a revolutionary tech­nology that creates allo­geneic (donor) gene-edited T cells from stem cells on an industrial scale, efficiently making T cell ther­a­pies that are clin­i­cally robust and of a con­sis­tently high quality. Notch is actively pursuing industry part­ner­ships.

The founders of Notch - Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto (UoT), Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) and CCRM, with Lumira Ventures as an addi­tional in­vestor - created Notch to provide a vehicle through which to fur­ther de­vel­op and bring to mar­ket the com­bined pioneering re­search, nearly ten years underway, from the labs of Drs. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, Senior Scientist in Biological Sciences at Sunnybrook, and Chair of the Department of Immunology at UoT; and of Peter Zandstra, Pro­fessor, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at UoT and Director, School of Biomedical engi­neer­ing and Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia.

"This tech­nology is very promising and might be used to create ther­a­pies to treat some of our greatest med­i­cal chal­lenges, like cancer, auto­immune dis­eases and organ trans­plant rejection. It’s also the first and only method that can reconstitute immune sys­tems," says Dr. Andy Smith, Pres­i­dent and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. "Finally having op­tions to target these high-impact areas for our patients is what we mean when we say we are inventing the future of health care."

Jennifer Fraser, Director Innovations at the University of Toronto, comments that "Dr. Zúñiga-Pflücker’s allo­geneic T cell ther­apy was one of the first projects I worked on when I joined UoT. It’s very grat­i­fy­ing to see the tech­nology move to­ward the clinic."

Even as the field for these ther­a­pies grows rapidly, major chal­lenges have until now prevented wider adoption mainly due to a slow and expensive manu­fac­tur­ing process which yielded variable results. The Notch tech­nology, how­ever, shows prom­ise for surmounting these issues cost-effectively and reliably. Notch, having been incubated at CCRM, will be able to leverage its in-house process devel­op­ment ex­per­tise and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facility, located in downtown Toronto. It offers universally en­hanced T cell ther­a­pies against high-impact dis­eases, using stem cells as a renewable source to ex­pand treat­ment op­tions and de­liver cost-effective immuno­therapies to patients. The aim of Notch is to gen­er­ate T cells from mul­ti­ple sources of stem cells and provide a plat­form for re­search and devel­op­ment, and a better way of manu­fac­tur­ing T cells and their appli­ca­tions for treating cancers or immune deficiencies.

"TIAP is pleased that, after many years of nurturing this re­search and investing in the risky early-stages with our co-founders, we are now seeing a truly ground-breaking new health science tech­nology make its way through devel­op­ment in a very en­cour­ag­ing way. This is yet another example of what can be done through TIAP’s unique ability within the com­munity to bundle tech­nolo­gies across mul­ti­ple in­sti­tu­tions. This is a true col­lab­o­ration which has resulted in devel­op­ment of a tech­nology that will have sig­nif­i­cant impact", says Dr. Rafi Hofstein, Pres­i­dent & CEO of TIAP.

"Notch Thera­peutics is a star pupil in CCRM’s incubation pro­gram," says Dr. Michael May, Pres­i­dent and CEO of CCRM. "By de-risking the tech­nology and designing Proof of Concept studies to appeal to in­vestors, attracting ex­peri­enced start-up man­agement, and work­ing with our ecosystem part­ners, we have collectively given Notch every oppor­tu­ni­ty to succeed."

Dr. Benjamin Rovinski, Managing Director of Lumira Ventures, states: "Early on, our team recog­nized Notch’s novel and dif­fer­en­ti­ated plat­form and its poten­tial to pro­duce safer, more ef­fec­tive, and scalable allo­geneic T cell ther­a­pies. We are pleased to be part of the financing syndicate. The quality and breadth of science coming out of Canadian universities is phenomenal, and im­por­tant innovators like Notch are able to access capital, knowledge and the engaged sup­port of Lumira and other in­vestors, to enable the devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion of their tech­nology. We are ex­cited to work with the entire Notch team."

About TIAP

TIAP is a lead­ing provider of venture build­ing services, early-stage funding, and deal-brokering with industry and private in­vestors. As a member-based or­ga­ni­za­tion made up of 14 member in­sti­tu­tions – in­clud­ing University of Toronto and affiliated teaching hos­pi­tals – TIAP’s mandate is to drive the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of their most promising re­search break­­throughs. TIAP has an active port­folio of more than 60 com­pa­nies in sectors such as thera­peutics, med­i­cal devices and IT/AI, which have raised in excess of CDN$300M from global in­vestors, and has created more than 1000 direct/indirect jobs.

For more in­for­ma­tion, please visit www.tiap.ca

About University of Toronto

Founded in 1827, the University of Toronto is Canada’s lead­ing in­sti­tu­tion of learning, discovery and knowledge creation. U of T is one of the world’s top re­search-intensive universities, driven to invent and inno­vate. It is also one of the top five universities in the world for its start-up incubator pro­grams. In the last 10 years, the U of T entrepreneurship com­munity has created over 500 com­pa­nies and raised over $1.5 billion in investment capital. www.utoronto.ca

About Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is inventing the future of health care for the 1.3 million patients the hos­pi­tal cares for each year through the ded­i­ca­tion of its more than 10,000 staff and volunteers. An inter­na­tionally recog­nized leader in re­search and education and a full affiliation with the University of Toronto distinguishes Sunnybrook as one of Canada’s premier academic health sciences centres. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for high-risk pregnancies, critically-ill newborns and adults, offering specialized rehabilitation and treating and preventing cancer, cardiovascular dis­ease, neurological and psychiatric disorders, orthopaedic and arthritic con­di­tions and traumatic injuries. The Hospital also has a unique and national lead­ing pro­gram for the care of Canada’s war veterans. For more in­for­ma­tion about how Sunnybrook is inventing the future of health care. Please visit us online at www.sunnybrook.ca

About CCRM

CCRM, a Canadian not-for-profit or­ga­ni­za­tion funded by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, and lead­ing academic and industry part­ners, sup­ports the devel­op­ment of regenerative med­i­cines and asso­ci­ated enabling tech­nolo­gies, with a spe­cif­ic focus on cell and gene ther­apy. A network of re­searchers, lead­ing com­pa­nies, in­vestors and entrepreneurs, CCRM ac­cel­er­ates the trans­la­tion of scientific discovery into new com­pa­nies and mar­ketable prod­ucts for patients, with specialized teams, ded­i­cated funding, and unique infrastructure. CCRM is the com­mer­cial­iza­tion part­ner of the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the University of Toronto’s Medicine by Design. CCRM is hosted by the University of Toronto. Visit us at ccrm.ca.

About Lumira Ventures

Lumira Ventures is Canada’s lead­ing and most active health­care venture capital firm. Lumira invests in best-in-class North American com­pa­nies devel­op­ing inno­va­tive thera­peutics and med­i­cal tech­nolo­gies whose prod­ucts offer trans­for­ma­tive im­prove­ments to patient health out­comes and provide meaningful re­duc­tions to the over­all cost of health­care de­livery. Since inception, Lumira’s port­folio com­pa­nies have brought 50+ new ther­a­pies to mar­ket, impacting the lives of 1+ billion patients globally, generating $65+ billion in cumulative revenue.

Source: Notch Thera­peutics.