NK:IO, a London, UK-based company which specializes in natural killer (NK) cell biology applied to the development of off-the-shelf cell therapies targeting solid tumours, raised £1.2M in funding.
The round, which brought the total amount to $5.1M, was led by Cancer Research Horizons. Other investors included Imperial College Enterprise Fund, Start Codon, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund and Meltwind.
The company intends to use the funds to drive its cell therapy candidates through full pre-clinical testing.
Founded in December 2020 by Hugh J M Brady, Matt Fuchter, and Mike Romanos, NK:IO provides a platform that activates blood stem cell progenitors to yield NK cell tumour-killing potency and very high yield cell production, which it believes will be transformative in cancer cell therapy. In addition, the platform enables efficient engineering of progenitor cells to enable the production of next-generation NK cells for further increases in potency or tumour targeting, which NK:IO is progressing for certain hard to treat tumour subtypes.
The company’s first indication targeted will be ovarian cancer, in collaboration with Prof. Iain McNeish, Professor of Oncology at Imperial College, Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre and a leading expert in the field.
FinSMEs
25/07/2023