UK biotech startup Mogrify injects $16M to get novel cell therapies to market soon – TechCrunch

Cambridge, UK-based biotech startup Mogrify, which is working on systematizing the development of novel cell therapies in areas such as regenerative medicine, has closed an initial $16 million Series A.

The raise from investors Ahren Innovation Capital,Parkwalkand24Haymarketfollows a $4M seed in February taking its total raised to date to $20M.

Put simply, Mogrifys approach entails analysis of vast amounts of genomic data in order to identify the specific energetic changes needed to flip an adult cell from one type to another without having to reset it to a stem cell state with huge potential utility for a wide variety of therapeutic use-cases.

What were trying to do with Mogrify is systematize that process where you can say heres my source cell, heres my target cell, here are the differences between the networks and here are the most likely points of intervention that were going to have to make to drive the fate of an adult cell to another adult cell without going through a stem cell stage, says CEO and investor Dr Darrin Disley.

So far he says its successfully converted 15 cells out of 15 tries.

Were now rapidly moving those on through our own programs and partnership programs, he adds.

Mogrifys business has three main components: Internal program development of cell therapies (current cell therapies its developing include enhancing augmented cartilage implantation; non-invasive treatment of ocular damage; and for blood disorders). Its also developing a universal source of cells for use in immunotherapy to act as disease-eaters, asDisley puts it.

Speculative IP development is another focus. Because of the systematic nature of the technology were in a position very rapidly to identify areas of therapy that have particular cell conversions at their essence and then drive that IP generation around those cells very quickly and create an IP footprint, he says.

Partnering deals is the third piece. Mogrify is also working with others to co-develop and bring targeted cell therapies to market. Disley says its already closed some partnerships, though its not announcing any names yet.

The startup is drawing on around a decades worth of recent work genomics science. And specifically on a data-set generated by an international research effort, called Fantom 5, which its founders had early access to.

We started with that massive Fantom data-set. Thats the baseline, the background if you like. Think of it like two cities in America: Chicago and New York. Theres your source cell, theres your target cell. And because you have all the background data of every piece of the network every building, every skyscraper if you look at the two you can identify the difference in the gene expression, therefore you can identify which factors will regulate a wide array of those genes. So you can start identifying the differences between the two, explainsDisley.

Weve then added to that massive data sets in DNA-protein and protein-protein interactions so you start to now overlay all of that data. And then weve added on top of that new next-gen sequencing data and epigenetic data. So youve now got this massive data-set. Its like having a network map between all the different cell types. So youre therefore then able to make predictions on how many interventions, what interventions are needed to drive that change of state and its systematic. It doesnt just recommend one set. Theres a ranking. It can go down to hundreds. And there is some overlap and redundancies, so for example if one youre preferred thing doesnt work the way you wanted it to you can go back and select another.

Or if theres an IP issue around that factor you can ignore that piece of the network and use an alternative route. And once youve got to your target cell, if it needs to some tweaking you can actually re-sequence it and take that back and thats your starting cell again. And you can go through this optimization process. So what comes out at the other end youve got a patent that it like a small molecule composition of matter patent; its the therapeutic. So youre not coming out with the target, youre actually coming out with here is the composition of matter on the cell.

In terms of timeframe for getting novel cell therapies from concept to market Disley suggests a range of between four and seven years.

Once youve identified the cell type that can be be the basis of your GMP manufacturable process and then you can tweak that to take it to the therapeutic indication you can develop a cell therapy and bring that to market in five years, he says. Its not like the old days with small molecules where it can take ten, 15, 20 years to get a serious therapy on the market.

When youre treating patients is because there are no other treatments for them, when you go into phase two and do your safety study [and] efficacy study youre actually treating patients already in terms of their disease. And if you get it right you can get a fast track approval. Or a conditional approval so that you may not even have to do a phase 3 [testing].

Were not using any artificial intelligence here, he also emphasizes, pointing to his experience investing in companies in the big extreme data space which he argues do best by using unbiased approaches.

AI I think is still trying to find its way, he continues. Because in its essence it will be able to get to answers with smaller amounts of data but its only as good as the data you train it on. And the danger with AI it just learns to recognize what you want it to recognize. It doesnt know what it doesnt know.

In combination, once you continue to generate this massive cell network data etc you can start applying aspects of machine learning and AI. But you couldnt do Mogrify with AI without the data. You have to do it that way. And the data is so complex and combinatorial 2,000 transcription factors, in terms of regulation of those genes, they then interact in network to do the protein-protein interactions, youve got epigenetic aspects of that, you could even start adding cell microbiome effects to that later so youve got a lot of factors that could influence the phenotype of the cell thats coming out the other end.

So I think with AI you have to be a little careful. I think it will be a more optimizing tool once youve got sufficient confidence in your system.

The plan for the Series A funding is to ramp up Mogrifys corporate operations and headcount including bringing in senior executives and expertise from industry as well as spending to fund its therapy development programs.

Disley notes its recent appointment of Dr Jane Osbourn as chair as one example.

Were bringing in more people with a lot of cell therapy experience from big pharma, around then more on the manufacturing and delivery of that so really building so that were not just a tech company, he says. Weve very strong already, were already 35 people on the tech and early stage drug discovery side were going to add another 30 to that. But thats going to be increasingly more people with big pharma, cell therapy development, manufacturing experience to get products on to market.

Partner search is another focus for the Series A. Were trying to find the right strategy partners. Were not doing services, were not doing products so we want to find the right strategic partners in terms of doing multi-programs in a partnership, he adds. And then a series of more tactical deals where people have got a specific problem with a cell conversion. These more turnkey deals, if you like. We still get up-fronts, milestones and royalties but theyre smaller.

Despite now having enough money for the next two to two and half years its also leaving the Series A open to continue expanding the round over the next 12 months up to a maximum of another $16M.

We have so many interested investors, Disley tells us. This round we didnt actually open our round. We did it with internal investors and people were very close to who weve worked with before, and there were investors lining up [so] we are leaving it open so that in these next 12 months we may choose to increase the amount we bring in.

It would be a maximum of another $16M if it was an A round but we may decide just to go straight forward if we progress very fast to a much bigger B round.

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UK biotech startup Mogrify injects $16M to get novel cell therapies to market soon - TechCrunch

Ridgefield woman, her mother write book about battle with MS – The Columbian

It hurt Margaret Godfrey to see daughter Rachel Carter in pain, so she painted.

And once the worst pain had passed, Carter needed a way to move forward, so she wrote.

In 2000, at age 24, Carter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease where the immune system eats away at the lining of nerves and impairs or disables the brain and central nervous system.

Carter is now a married 43-year-old mother of three who lives in Ridgefield. But when she was diagnosed with MS, it marked a significant shift in her life. The woman who ran marathons, rode a motorcycle to high school and was once a deckhand on a small riverboat cruise ship to prove a point because she was told a woman couldnt hold that job, slowly morphed as her disease altered life.

It started with a fall on vacation during a run. Then falling on runs became more frequent. Gone went the marathons. In came the treadmill. Slowly, over the course of 12 years, the MS progressed and symptoms became debilitating. Running left completely. Neuropathic pain caused her to feel like she was sunburned in the morning, and by the afternoon or evening it felt like third degree burns. Carter left her job in sales in 2013.

I would always end up in tears in the bed, Carter said.

Carter has chronicled her battle with MS, and a stem cell treatment she credits with turning her prognosis around, in a new book called Enduring the Cure: My MS Journey to the Brink of Death and Back. Her mother helped her edit the book, and provided the books cover art. Adrienne van Der Valk also edited the book.

Through pain, Carter and her mother have created art. About five years ago, Carter underwent an experimental stem cell transplant in Seattle to help her rebuild her immune system. Carter lived in Seattle for about three months, while her parents watched two of her children, and the other child lived with an aunt.

As part of the procedure, Carters own stem cells were harvested and then reintroduced to her body after chemotherapy depleted most of her immune system. Its what she described as a rebooting of her whole immune system, in hopes that it would stop attacking her brain and spinal cord. Carter still has her previous brain damage, which impacts her memory and brain power; but so far, the stem cell transplant has improved her condition greatly, she said.

Carter has more energy she used to sometimes not be able to leave bed some days. She also can stand upright and walk easily she used to rely on a walker. And her pain is minimal now, the biggest improvement.

Carters family kept notes during her treatment, and Carter decided to use those, and the memories of her family, to help her write the book with van Der Valk.

Thinking was very fatiguing for Carter, since she still has the brain damage from MS. She could only work about one to two hours on the book at a time. She said writing was frustrating and hard in many ways. Parts of my brain are gone, Carter explained. She said it requires her about 10 times as much brain matter as the average person to process something simple.

Its so much pressure to have something you feel like you have to do, and then you cant do it. I had so little energy, Carter said. I cant explain very well because so many words dont come to me.

In spite of the challenges, Carter feels like sharing her experience will help others because, in life, we all have hard situations, she said.

Godfrey, a 70-year-old painter who lives in Blue River, Ore., found art in the familys experience. She drew inspiration from Gustav Klimt, an Austrian symbolist, who painted in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and created symbolic paintings of her daughter. Godfrey said art makes her an intellectual because of how she has to think about what shes painting. This time she was researching her own child.

Godfrey did a painting of Carter surrounded by old running shoes, a life she had to give up. She did a painting of Carter without her hair, which centered on Carters worries. She did a painting of Carter covered by a quilt with her three kids on it, what kept her going and allowed her to recover. She did a painting of Carter lying in a hospital bed, looking exhausted and resigned, which is the books cover. The final painting in the series, called The Journey Is Not Done, features Carter with hair, months after treatment. It has an unfinished mosaic because Carters journey isnt over.

Creating art is a very meditative thing, Godfrey said. Rather than getting wrapped up in emotions, once I start painting the world is me and paper. All the worries of life disappear. It was a way to enjoy that experience of just being able to throw out my expression, without getting too emotionally tangled up.

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Ridgefield woman, her mother write book about battle with MS - The Columbian

How the bodys cells can prevent the need for surgery – ABC 4

Posted: Oct 8, 2019 / 09:45 AM GMT-0600 / Updated: Oct 10, 2019 / 01:15 PM GMT-0600

Stem cell therapy is one of the most successful procedures ever for solving joint pain. Your own bodys cells are injected back into the area where healing is needed: back, neck, hip, shoulder, etc. The new cells signal to body the need for regeneration, which starts to take place.

The treatment is a one-and-done injection, no surgery. Regenerative Medicine of Utah successfully treats many with stem cell therapy. One patient, John Dunn, was scheduled for knee replacement because of bone on bone pain. Before surgery he received an injection. Three months later and regenerated tissue was found in his knee joint. Six months later his knee was even better than that.

In just four weeks John was out of pain, but the body wasnt done healing. The cells continue signaling to the body the need for healing. Its usual to allow 12 months for the regeneration process to complete and reach its limit.

Making sure youre a candidateis important. Not everyone needs it. Many patients that end up being a candidateinitially thought they werent eligible. To know if youre a candidate schedulea consultation.

Right now, at Regenerative Medicine ofUtah an evaluation is $49 for the first 25 callers to (800)453-0286.

This article contains sponsored content.

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How the bodys cells can prevent the need for surgery - ABC 4

ReNeuron cell-based treatment hailed by leading non-profit group funding research into treatments for retinal degenerative diseases – Proactive…

Benjamin Yerxa, chief executive of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, said results from a recent clinical trial represented a major step forward for sufferers of a degenerative disease called retinitis pigmentosa

A leading non-profit group funding research into treatments for retinal degenerative diseases has hailed as major step forward a potential therapy developed by ().

The comments from Benjamin Yerxa, chief executive of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, followed the presentation of data from a phase I/IIa clinical study by trial investigator Pravin Dugel.

He has been working on ReNeurons human retinal progenitor (hRPC) stem cell line, which has shown early promiseimproving, or stabilising clarity of vision in people with the degenerative disease retinitis pigmentosa.

Dugel's address to the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting in San Francisco was based on the latest results from the clinical assessment of the drug candidate, published on October 2.

After the presentation, Yerxa said: "We're excited by the progress of ReNeuron's hRPC therapy.

From the Foundation's perspective, any gain in vision, or even stabilisation, is a major step forward for patients with RP as currently it is a condition where progressive loss of vision leads to blindness."

Earlier this month ReNeuron said it had seen rapid and profound results in the first three patients of the second phase of clinical studies of its human retinal progenitor cells.

The phase IIa trials saw noticeable improvements in visual acuity as measured by the number of letters that could be read on a standard eye chart.

Six months after treatment there was a mean improvement of 18.5 letters per treated eye, with a mean improvement of 12 letters per treated eye after nine months, whereas inexorable disease progression is the norm for this disease.

With total of 22 patients now treated and the study still ongoing, ReNeuron said the efficacy in subsequent patients was seen but at a lower rate and magnitude, with improvement in visual acuity ranging from +5 to +11 letters in the treated eye three months after treatment.

I believe that we are seeing a clear signal of efficacy in this patient population where any gain in vision, let alone the levels seen in some of these patients, is so hard to come by and so very much appreciated," said Dr Pravin Dugel, managing partner at Retinal Consultants of Arizona and clinical professor at the Roski Eye Institute in Los Angeles.

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Gay Couple Adopt HIV-Positive Child After She Was Rejected By Ten Other Families – UNILAD

A gay couple have spoken out about the immediate connection they felt after adopting a HIV-positive child who had been rejected by 10 other families.

Damian Pighin, 42, and Ariel Vijarra, 39, were the first gay couple to get married in the north-eastern Argentine province of Santa Fe, and made the decision to expand their family in 2011.

The married couple, from Rosario, had several years of disappointment before receiving a call in 2014 about a newborn baby who was ready to be adopted.

The baby girl, who was born with HIV, was 28 days old when Damian and Ariel received the call and were informed 10 families had previously rejected her.

However, they did not hesitate to accept her into their family, with Ariel telling local media:

As soon as I saw her, I felt that she was part of my life. The connection was immediate. We held her in our arms, gave her the bottle and she looked at us with her eyes wide open without crying.

The little girl, who has been named Olivia, responded very well to her HIV treatment and she immediately started to gain weight. A couple of years ago, the family received brilliant news when tests showed the virus was no longer detectable in Olivia.

The family grew by one more in 2015, when a woman who heard about the couples story wanted them to adopt her baby girl. They did, and so Damian and Ariel welcomed Victoria into their lives.

The two siblings are similar in age, with Olivia turning five years old later this month and Victoria celebrating the same birthday in February.

Ariel and Damien work for non-governmental organisation Acunar Familias, which roughly translates to Cradle Families, helping couples adopt unwanted children.

Although there is currently no cure for HIV, medical treatment is available that significantly reduces the amount of the virus in the body. As per Medical News Today, this can be to the point the virus becomes undetectable in the blood.

An undetectable viral load means the person living with HIV is no longer infectious and the virus is no longer able to damage their immune system.

Earlier this year, a third person appeared to have been cured from the virus when they underwent a stem cell transplant to treat cancer, rather than HIV. The transplant involved killing most of their immune cells with radiotherapy or drugs, and then replacing them with cells from a donor.

Although this provides hope a cure is close to being confirmed, bone marrow transplants reportedly wont be used for people with HIV who dont have cancer because of the risks involved in the procedure namely graft versus host disease, infection, organ damage, and death.

Regardless, Doctor Annemarie Wensing, a virologist at the University Medical Center Utrecht, told The New York Times she hoped news of the cases will inspire a generation of doctors to keep striving for what was previously believed to be impossible.

She concluded by saying this will inspire people to believe the cure is not a dream but is, in fact, reachable.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [emailprotected]

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).

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Gay Couple Adopt HIV-Positive Child After She Was Rejected By Ten Other Families - UNILAD