Syncona, a London-based healthcare investment company, committed £34 million and UCL Technology Fund invested £1 million.
Quell Therapeutics launched in London with a £35 million Series A financing. Quell will work on developing engineered T regulatory (Treg) cell therapies. Syncona, a London-based healthcare investment company, committed £34 million and UCL Technology Fund invested £1 million.
Syncona will hold a 69.3% stake in Quell. The first tranche of the funding round, £8.3 million, was paid in March 2019. Quell is the tenth life science company founded by Syncona. Others include Gyroscope, Freeline and Nightstar Therapeutics. Biogen acquired Nightstar earlier this year for $800 million.
Tregs are a type of T cell that can potentially downregulate the immune system. Quell will focus on advancing therapies to treat a range of diseases, including solid organ transplant rejection and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Quell was founded in partnership with six experts in the Treg arena (cell engineering, solid organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases) from King’s College London, UCL, and Hannover Medical School.
The six Treg experts include Giovanna Lombardi, Professor of Human Transplant Immunology at Kings College London (KCL); Alberto Sanchez-Fueyo, Professor of Hepatology in the Institute of Liver Studies at KCL; Hans Straus, Professor of Tumour Immunology and Director of the Institute of Immunity and Transplantation at University College London (UCL); Emma Morris, Professor of Clinical Cell & Gene Therapy and Inflammation, Immunity and Immunotherapeutics Theme Director, National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre; Marc Martinez-Llordella, Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Liver Studies at KCL; and Elmar Jaeckel, Co-Leader Liver Transplant program MHH, Group Leader “Immune tolerance” in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology at Hannover Medical School.
Sanchez-Fueyo stated, “We are delighted to partner with Syncona to found Quell and are excited to work with the team to develop the next generation of engineered Treg cell therapies. The founder team has a unique cross-section of expertise built over decades of scientific research, and we believe there is a significant opportunity to develop novel therapies for the treatment of solid organ transplant and autoimmune conditions. We share Syncona’s vision to bring products to patients in areas of high unmet medical need and are looking forward to the journey ahead.”
The Series A funds will be used to begin developing its first program. Quell will work closely with a team with Syncona as it creates its operations and management team. Martin Murphy, Syncona’s chief executive officer, will be Quell’s chairman. Elisa Petris, a Syncona partner, will be a board director and Freddie Dear, also a Syncona partner, will be an observer on the board.
“The foundation of Quell represents an exciting opportunity for Syncona to build the leading cell engineering company with the potential to develop a first-in-class therapy in an innovative field,” stated Petris. “Over the last year, we have worked to bring together a group of world-class leaders in their respective fields, developed a strategy for the business and funded the business to enable it to scale and succeed. We look forward to continuing to work in close partnership with them as we build out the company’s management team and business plan to deliver their goal of becoming the leader in treating conditions of immune dysfunction utilizing gene-modifying cells.”
