Affini-T Therapeutics, a Boston, MA, and Seattle, WA-based biotechnology company, raised $175M in funding.
The round was led by Vida Ventures and Leaps by Bayer, with participation from Humboldt Fund, The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Catalio Capital Management, Agent Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, Erasca Ventures, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The company intends to use the funds to operationalize its platform discovery engine and seek to drive multiple oncogene driver programs into the clinic while pursuing complementary technology licenses to bolster its cell therapy platform.
Led by Jak Knowles, M.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Affini-T leverages T cells to target core oncogenic drivers to develop potentially curative therapies for solid tumor cancers. Its cell therapy platform harnesses engineering and synthetic biology capabilities to target cancer-driving mutations, beginning with KRAS. The company leverages these tools to optimize T cell functions and rewrite the rules of the solid tumor microenvironment, enabling the potential for sustained clinical outcomes in patients.
The company has established a bi-coastal U.S. presence with research labs in Seattle, Washington and headquarters and manufacturing infrastructure in Boston, Massachusetts.
Affini-T is led by Dr. Knowles, Loïc Vincent, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Kim Nguyen, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer and Kathy Yi, MBA, Chief Operating Officer. The company was also co-founded by Arjun Goyal, M.D., M.Phil., Co-Founder and Managing Director, Vida Ventures.
Affini-T has also established a scientific advisory board comprised of its scientific co-founders from Fred Hutch and key innovators in immunology, tumor microenvironment biology and cellular engineering including:
- Jim Allison, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate, MD Anderson Cancer Center;
- Pam Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center;
- Rafi Ahmed, Ph.D., Emory University;
- David Kranz, Ph.D., University of Illinois; and
- Susan Kaech, Ph.D., Salk Institute.
FinSMEs
23/03/2022