Cell therapy weekly: US$115 million secured for bioprinted tissue therapies
This week: Aspen Neuroscience (CA, USA) and Mytos (London, UK) entered a manufacturing collaboration for Aspen’s investigational cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease, CTMC (TX, USA) partnered with Syenex (IL, USA) to improve the efficiency and scalability of engineered T-cell therapies and Aspect Biosystems (Vancouver, Canada) raised US$115 million to advance its bioprinted tissue therapeutics toward clinical trials.
The news highlights:
- Automating cell therapy manufacturing for Parkinson’s disease
- Advancing scalable T-cell manufacturing
- $115 million secured for bioprinted tissue therapies
Automating cell therapy manufacturing for Parkinson’s disease
Aspen Neuroscience and Mytos have entered a manufacturing collaboration to automate the manufacturing of autologous dopaminergic neuronal precursor cells (DANPCs) for Aspen’s investigational cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease, ANPD001.
Aspen will integrate Mytos’ iDEM automated cell culture technology into its new manufacturing facility in Torrey Pines, California. The technology will enable “fully hands-off” production of DANPCs using fluidics, advanced imaging and mechanical movement and control.
“We are excited to work with the innovative Mytos team. Their instrumentation and software platform technology have the potential to close and automate an important step of our process, and thereby significantly reduce labor and increase production capacity,” said Thorsten Gorba, VP of Process Development at Aspen Neuroscience. “We are confident that, alongside our bioinformatics and enabling technologies, the integration of the Mytos iDEM platform will streamline and elevate the automation of patient-specific DANPC production.”
Advancing scalable T-cell manufacturing
CTMC has entered a partnership with Syenex to improve the efficiency and scalability of engineered T-cell therapies. CTMC will utilize Syenex’s advanced bioengineering systems, SNX-T1 and SNX-T2, which significantly improve gene delivery efficiency and reduce production timelines. These systems address key challenges in scaling traditional lentiviral and retroviral vector manufacturing, offering up to tenfold improvements.
Jason Bock, CEO of CTMC, stated: “Our mission is to accelerate the delivery of transformative cell therapies to patients. By incorporating Syenex’s advanced systems into our retroviral and lentiviral vector manufacturing platforms, we’ve expanded rapid access to a growing suite of validated technologies. This integration empowers us to provide comprehensive technical solutions to our biotech partners in order to address critical challenges in scalability and efficiency.”
$115 million secured for bioprinted tissue therapies
Aspect Biosystems, a biotechnology company developing bioprinted tissue therapeutics, has raised $115 million in a Series B funding round. The financing was led by Dimension (NY, USA), with contributions from Novo Nordisk (Bagsværd, Denmark), Radical Ventures (Toronto, Canada), InBC (Vancouver, Canada) and others. This funding builds on recent milestones, including a CA$200 million partnership with Canadian and British Columbian governments and a Novo Nordisk collaboration targeting diabetes and obesity.
The funds from this round of financing will advance Aspect’s bioprinted tissue therapeutics toward clinical trials and expand its cutting-edge platform, which combines AI-driven bioprinting, computational design, therapeutic cells and biomaterials to develop innovative treatments for metabolic and endocrine diseases.
“Aspect is an embodiment of the multi-disciplinary companies that we believe will define the next chapter of biotech,” said Nan Li, Founder and Managing Partner, Dimension. “The company brings together capabilities across tissue engineering, cell therapy, biomaterials, computer vision and robotics to deliver on the promise of regenerative medicine. We are beyond excited to partner with the Aspect team to advance their programs forward and to build a generational company.”
