Participated · Series A · Sep 2022

Innervace is developing pre-formed, anatomically inspired implantable tissue pathways intended to replace or modify brain connections lost to degeneration or injury. Its lead program aims to reconstruct the nigrostriatal pathway to reinnervate the dopamine circuit in patients with Parkinson’s disease. The company differentiates itself from traditional cell therapies by pursuing pathway reconstruction rather than implanting dopamine neurons directly into the striatum. The Series A financing will fund advancement of the platform and the lead asset and enables licensing of a cell source with a specific A9 dopaminergic phenotype from a UC San Diego–Deerfield collaboration. Innervace’s platform was initially developed by D. Kacy Cullen, Ph.D. and Douglas Smith, M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Deerfield Management will support development operationally and Dave Greenwald, Ph.D. will join Innervace’s board as Deerfield’s representative. Innervace is a resident of Cure®, a healthcare innovation campus in New York City.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2021

CARISMA Therapeutics develops differentiated, proprietary engineered‑macrophage cell therapies, including autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)‑macrophages for solid tumors. Its lead candidate, CT‑0508, is an anti‑HER2 CAR‑macrophage that has initiated Phase I clinical trial enrollment and patient screening. The company’s platform was developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and is being advanced across additional discovery programs. CARISMA intends to expand its pipeline in cancer indications and explore applications of the engineered‑macrophage platform to disease areas outside oncology. The company completed a second closing of a $59 million Series B financing to fund these development and discovery activities. CARISMA is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Carisma Therapeutics develops macrophage-based adoptive cellular immunotherapies using a proprietary CAR‑Macrophage platform that combines antigen recognition with macrophage effector functions. The platform is designed to both directly kill targeted cells and leverage antigen-presenting cell biology to stimulate adaptive immune responses. Initial therapeutic applications are focused on solid tumors, with other potential uses including disruption of protein aggregates across disease states. The company plans to use its recent financing to expand the technology platform and advance programs toward clinical development, anticipating initiation of clinical studies in 2019. Leadership includes founders Saar Gill, MD, PhD and Michael Klichinsky, PharmD, with Steven Kelly serving as CEO; the team also lists senior scientific and operations leaders and an experienced scientific advisory board.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2018

Tissue Analytics develops an EMR module for chronic wound management that uses machine learning to speed clinical documentation workflows and improve the quality of data. The company was incorporated in 2014 by Kevin Keenahan and is based in Baltimore, MD, with a satellite office in Kansas City, MO. It has partnered with Epic, Cerner, Allscripts and athenaHealth to distribute its product. Tissue Analytics raised $5M in a Series A round to support growth. The company intends to use the funds to expand the sales team in its Kansas City office and to hire data analytics personnel in Baltimore. The financing is positioned to support commercialization and analytics capability building. Tissue Analytics builds a smartphone-based app that captures wound images and quantifies wound size and characteristics. The company operates in wound imaging and telehealth, focusing on chronic wounds—a traditionally underserved and archaic area of medicine. It says its goals include modernizing care, improving care coordination, and providing a more objective way to evaluate wounds. Kevin Keenahan (identified in the article as CEO and co-founder) has discussed the company’s mission in prior interviews. Financially, Tissue Analytics recently completed a financing reported as debt. The company raised $1.92M in debt from a group of undisclosed investors, according to an SEC filing and confirmation from the CEO. Tissue Analytics provides a smartphone app that lets nurses capture wound images and a web portal where specialist clinicians can remotely monitor and manage chronic wounds. The product measures surface area, contraction rates, length and width, segments tissues, and applies color correction and basic image processing today. The team says it is collecting data for future predictive analytics and diagnostic features, with the eventual goal of suggesting therapies and pursuing regulatory submissions. The founders spun the company out of the Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design at Johns Hopkins University in spring 2014 and launched a limited beta at Johns Hopkins followed by a more open beta. Customer numbers are not being disclosed in the articles. The company intends to position its technology as a SaaS offering to healthcare and insurance companies and is studying economic impact with Penn Medicine to support that sales pitch.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2016

Tmunity Therapeutics is a clinical‑stage biotherapeutics company focused on delivering next‑generation T‑cell immunotherapy for cancer and other devastating diseases. The company integrates scientific, clinical and manufacturing expertise from its founders and collaborators to develop engineered T‑cell constructs. Tmunity has a diversified portfolio with three programs currently in clinic development and a pipeline aiming at both solid and liquid tumors. It operates laboratories and production facilities at the University of Pennsylvania and a dedicated cGMP manufacturing facility in East Norriton, PA, and collaborates with the Parker Institute, UCSF and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The company emphasizes process improvement and production scale‑up to support clinical development and eventual commercialization. Tmunity’s leadership includes founders with prior CAR‑T experience and executives who helped bring the first CAR‑T therapy to market. Tmunity Therapeutics is a private clinical‑stage biotherapeutics company focused on delivering next‑generation T cell immunotherapy to patients with cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune disease. The company is developing a diversified portfolio of personalized T cell–based therapies designed to exert best‑in‑class control over T cell activation and direction in the body. Tmunity was founded on an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with the University of Pennsylvania and cites Carl H. June, M.D. among its scientific founders. It leverages laboratories and production facilities at UPenn and operates a dedicated cGMP manufacturing facility in Norristown, PA to pursue process improvement and scale production. The company aims to translate multiple engineered T cell approaches rapidly into the clinic, optimize manufacturing and pursue regulatory approvals. Its recent financing is intended to expand the business and operational structure to support development and manufacture of its portfolio. Tmunity Therapeutics develops engineered T cell therapies and platforms aimed at freeing the immunological potential of T cells to treat a wide range of disease indications. Its product focus includes T cell receptor (TCR) engineered T cells, regulatory T cells (Treg), and universal engineered T cell platforms that provide control over T cell activation and direction in vivo. The company is also developing proprietary technologies to activate, expand, and genetically engineer T cells from peripheral blood, cord blood, and tumors. Tmunity intends to use newly raised funds to advance development of these novel products. The company was co-founded by Anne Chew, Carl H. June, Bruce Levine, James L. Riley, Yangbing Zhao, and Bruce Blazar, who hold roles at Penn and the University of Minnesota. Tmunity is based in Philadelphia, PA.