Why Prime Movers Lab Invested in LyGenesis
Prime Movers Lab leads $19M Series A round for organ regeneration cell therapy startup LyGenesis.
The future of cell therapy and transplant medicine could have a new and unlikely hero: a patient’s own lymph nodes. Incredible as it may sound, inside each and every one of us exists a network of hundreds of pea-sized nodules that act as a highway system with rest stops along the way for the immune system and its band of troops, including intelligent cellular sensors (dendritic cells), tracking probes (B cells), and roving protectors (T cells). Nature has designed our lymph nodes to act like living bioreactors within our own bodies, able to house, train, and mature our cellular troops into seasoned soldiers of the immune system. Now, groundbreaking research published in the Journals Nature, Liver Transplant, and Gastroenterology revealed the fascinating adaptability of these mini-organs: lymph nodes can act like living bioreactors within our own bodies. The lymph nodes can be repurposed for use in growing different, non-immune cell types into mature versions of themselves. Indeed, a lymph node can be converted into a functional ectopic (extra) organ; a cellular alchemy capable of turning lymph nodes into, for example, livers. Prime Movers Lab partnered with LyGenesis, the company developing this technology, as part of their Series A round of financing.
LyGenesis is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a fundamentally different approach to cell therapy and transplant medicine. In the laboratory of inventor Dr. Eric Lagasse, Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, his group’s research broadly explores the scientific landscape across stem cell biology, tissue engineering, organogenesis, and approaches to cell therapy for a variety of diseases related to organ dysfunction. Dr. Lagasse completed his post-doctoral work with Dr. Irving Weissman at Stanford University. He later served as the Director of the Liver Stem Cell Discovery Program at biotechnology company StemCells Inc. before returning to academic research at the McGowan Institute at UPitt nearly two decades ago. Dr. Lagasse and collaborators have been researching and refining these cell therapy approaches for years, and the preclinical work in pigs represents a significant breakthrough that could have huge impacts on large portions of the cell therapy industry.
LyGenesis is an organ regeneration company that enables a patient’s own lymph nodes to be used as bioreactors to regrow functioning ectopic organs. Prime Movers Lab led a $19 million Series A investment in LyGenesis to advance this radically differentiated approach and to (again) back an experienced team led by Chief Executive Dr. Michael Hufford. Dr. Hufford also served as Interim CEO of our portfolio company Morphoceuticals, in addition to his previous roles at Cypress Biosciences and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and is a trained clinician. Existing investors Juvenescence participated in the round. It will be an honor to join the board of directors alongside such excellent professionals and scientists and to support the progress of this promising technology.
The human body is a surprising and resilient organism that we are still just beginning to understand. The function of the vital systems and control of biochemical parameters necessary to operate and sustain the human body are governed by several organs, each with a specific purpose. If an organ degrades or fails, due to the ravages of time or accelerated by disease or injury, clinicians today have limited options: to treat or to cut. But therapeutically rejuvenating a diseased or failing organ is still, unfortunately, largely infeasible. Tragically, patients spend years on organ donation waiting lists, and each day 17 people die still waiting. What if your only option is a donated organ?
Unfortunately, and despite the concerted effort of a significant global industry, the existing transplant infrastructure is insufficient to meet the needs of patients. Each year less than 35,000 liver transplants are conducted globally, about a third in the US. Yet, just the number of patients with decompensated cirrhosis — with a life expectancy of less than 2 years — exceeds 10 million people worldwide. These patients, if even eligible for the transplant waiting list, wait on average 5 years for a liver. Today, more than 100,000 people are on organ transplant waiting lists in the US alone, and patients have about a 50% chance of receiving an organ within 5 years. Every 9 minutes, another patient is added to a transplant list in the US. Worse yet, an inefficient donor system causes the wasting of more than 30,000 viable donor organs each year. Lastly, and perhaps most unfortunate, a quarter of all transplants are from living donors — a sacrifice no person should have to make.
Policy and fear drive some of the shortage, but the complexity and urgency of the transplant problem make donation very difficult to address. The United States, Brazil, and Israel use an opt-in system, while other countries have an opt-out system where individuals are presumed to support donation unless they proactively refused consent such as Spain, the United Kingdom, and Argentina. Several startups attempt to address this problem from various angles: from a therapeutic perspective to treat diseases directly and increase the viability of donor organs (Ochre Bio), approaches to 3D print tissues and organs using bioscaffolds (Prellis Biologics, and PML portfolio company Dimension Inx), and xenotransplantation using gene-edited “CRISPR’d” swine (Qihan Biotech, eGenesis).
LyGenesis will initially develop its cell therapies using donated cadaver organs that are unsuitable for transplantation, of which there is an increasing supply. From a single donor liver, dozens of doses can be derived for use in matched patients. Since today one donated organ treats only one patient, this is key to the initial scalability and cost-effectiveness of LyGenesis’s cell therapy. The ability of LyGenesis to use a single organ to treat dozens of patients is both a force multiplier from a supply standpoint, but also a source of considerable savings as the costs associated with processing the cells are amortized over many patients. By combining this cost-effective approach to manufacturing their therapy with their pioneering use of endoscopic ultrasound to conduct the transplant using a low-risk, minimally-invasive outpatient medical procedure under light sedation, the company’s cell therapies will have significantly improved margins compared to a full organ transplant or many other genetically engineered cell therapies.
The liver program is currently enrolling patients in a Phase 2a clinical trial at transplant centers at Tufts near Boston, Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, and Houston Methodist in Texas, with cells processed under regionalized cGMP facilities including Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The Phase 2 clinical trial will establish, preliminarily, the safety and efficacy of their approach. Other programs in the LyGenesis pipeline include ectopic versions of the pancreas for type 1 diabetes, thymus for immune rejuvenation, and kidney to restore renal function. For some applications, autologous cells derived directly from the patient or cells from a matched donor may be used. In the future, autologous or even universal allogeneic cells could be derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), eliminating the need for donor cells. In sum, LyGenesis has the opportunity to fundamentally change transplant medicine.
Prime Movers Lab is proud to partner with LyGenesis to advance this important regenerative medicine breakthrough and expand the opportunity for cell therapy to treat millions of patients.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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