Ongoing efforts by researchers at Children’s National Hospital to improve T-cell therapies have led to a spin-out company MANA Therapeutics which has announced a $35 million Series A financing. MANA is a clinical stage company creating nonengineered, allogeneic and off-the-shelf cell therapies that target multiple cancer antigens. Its EDIFY™ platform aims to educate T-cells that target multiple target multiple cell surface and intracellular tumor-associated antigens across a broad range of liquid and solid tumors, with an initial focus on relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

MANA was founded in 2017, and was based on the research and human proof-of-concept clinical trials conducted by Catherine Bollard, M.D., M.B.Ch.B., Conrad Russell Y. Cruz, M.D., Ph.D., Patrick Hanley, Ph.D. and other investigators at Children’s National along with their colleagues at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. The trials demonstrated safety and anti-tumor activity of MANA’s approach, and Children’s National provided an exclusive license to MANA to further develop this promising technology into commercial products in the field of immuno-oncology.

MANA Therapeutics recruited an experienced leadership team from industry including Martin B. Silverstein, M.D., president and CEO, who is a former senior executive at Gilead Sciences when they acquired Kite Pharma, one of the leading cell therapy companies, as well as Madhusudan V. Peshwa, Ph.D., chief technology officer, who joined from GE Health Care where he had been Chief Technology Officer and Global Head of R&D for Cell and Gene Therapies.

“MANA is building upon the strong foundational science established at Children’s National with a unique approach that promises to produce off-the-shelf allogeneic therapies that do not compromise on safety or efficacy,” said Marc Cohen, co-founder and executive chairman of MANA Therapeutics. “I look forward to continuing to support the MANA team as they advance their internal pipeline for the treatment of AML and select solid tumors, and expand the potential of EDIFY through strategic partnerships focused on new target antigens and cancer types.”

An international leader in the immunotherapy field, Dr. Bollard was an early believer in the potential of immune cell therapies to dramatically improve the treatment of patients with cancer and patients with life-threatening viral infections. Recently, she and her team at the Children’s National Center for Cancer and Immunology Research published findings in Blood showing T-cells taken from the blood of people who recovered from a COVID-19 infection can be successfully multiplied in the lab and maintain the ability to effectively target proteins that are key to the virus’s function.

“Over the past decade we have seen tremendous progress in cancer research and treatment and are beginning to unlock the potential of cell therapy for a variety of tumor types,” said Dr. Bollard. “The human proof-of-concept trials conducted by my team and colleagues showed potential for a nonengineered approach to educating T-cells to attack multiple tumor antigens, which MANA is expanding even further through refinement of the manufacturing process for an allogeneic product and application to a broader set of antigens in a variety of clinical indications and settings.”

Read more about how the Series A funding will enable rapid progress with MANA’s programs.