Tolerance Bio, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a novel approach to increasing healthspan by preserving, restoring, and manipulating the function of the thymus, the master regulator of immune tolerance, announced the closing of its oversubscribed $17.2 million seed funding round, led by Columbus Venture Partners, with participation from Criteria Bio Ventures, Sessa Capital, BioAdvance, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and individual biotechnology investors.
Tolerance Bio has been developing an allogeneic, or “off the shelf,” thymus-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)- based cell therapy platform and pharmacological thymus therapies to address immune-mediated diseases caused by abnormalities in immune tolerance, including cancer, autoimmunity, transplant rejection, infections, immune deficiencies, and allergies.
The thymus – an organ in the chest – plays a major role in training T lymphocytes (T cells) to defend against threats such as infections and cancers while preventing autoimmunity. And the T cell repertoire is developed in the first two years of life, and the thymus then declines with age, increasing the risk of immune diseases and mortality. Tolerance Bio’s technologies aim to delay and prevent thymic involution and restore thymic function if lost, ultimately addressing these immune diseases and potentially increasing longevity.
The iPSC technologies were initially developed at the University of Colorado and the University of Florida by Holger Russ, Ph.D., Scientific Co-Founder and Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Diabetes Institute at the University of Florida. And the technologies were advanced alongside a proven team of drug and cell therapy developers, including Dr. Francisco Leon, former Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Provention Bio (acquired by Sanofi in 2023) and former Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Medical Officer of Celimmune (acquired by Amgen in 2017).
This Tolerance Bio team includes cell therapy experts such as Yeh-Chuin Poh, Ph.D., Vice President of Technical Operations, formerly with Semma Therapeutics (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2019) and Beam Therapeutics. And the team also features experienced drug developers such as Justin Vogel, Chief Financial Officer; Phil Ball, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Business Development and Operations; and Paul Dunford, Vice President of Translational Science. All three formerly worked at Provention Bio and each bring more than 20 years of biopharma experience from leading pharmaceutical companies such as Allergan, Janssen and Roche.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. 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.”
-Francisco Leon, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tolerance Bio
“After pioneering the generation of bioengineered thymuses from iPSC in vitro and in vivo, I am very excited for the opportunity to advance this technology to benefit patients. I couldn’t have found a more experienced and dynamic team to partner with than the cell and drug therapy experts at Tolerance Bio.”
-Dr. Holger Russ
“The mission of Columbus Venture Partners is to support world-class teams to enable transformational technologies to become products and help people in need. With Tolerance Bio, we not only have the prospect of preventing and treating immune disease but also possibly extending longevity, a tremendously exciting opportunity.”
-Damia Tormo, Managing Partner of Columbus Venture Partners
“We are excited to support Tolerance Bio in their mission to manipulate immune tolerance via thymus-based therapies, potentially transforming the landscape of immune-mediated diseases. The exceptional team at Tolerance Bio, with deep expertise across both cell and drug therapies, is uniquely positioned to bring these groundbreaking treatments to patients. Their combined experience from leading biopharmaceutical companies will be key in advancing these innovative therapies and addressing unmet medical needs in immune disease management.”
-Pablo Cironi, Ph.D., Director at Criteria Bio Ventures
