Syncona has announcesdthe foundation of Quell Therapeutics, a new cell therapy company with a £35 million commitment in a Series A financing. Syncona has committed £34 million with a further £1 million being contributed by UCL Technology Fund.
Quell has been established with the aim of developing engineered T regulatory cell therapies. Tregs are a subset of T cells that provide a regulatory function that harnesses their strong immune-suppressive capacity.
Quell will seek to utilise the power of Treg cells to advance therapies for the management and treatment of a range of conditions such as solid organ transplant rejection, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
The £35 million financing will allow the company to initiate the development of its first programme. The Syncona team will work closely with Quell as it builds out its operations and management team. Syncona Chief Executive, Martin Murphy, has been appointed Chairman, whilst Elisa Petris and Freddie Dear, Syncona Partners, will be Director and Observer on the Board, respectively.
Elisa Petris, Partner of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: “The foundation of Quell represents an exciting opportunity for Syncona to build the leading cell engineering company with the potential to develop a first-in-class therapy in an innovative field.
Over the last year, we have worked to bring together a group of world-class leaders in their respective fields, developed a strategy for the business and funded the business to enable it to scale and succeed.”
Martin Murphy, Chief Executive of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: “Quell is the tenth life science company to be founded by Syncona and clearly demonstrates our proactive model in areas of deep domain expertise.
“We identified an innovative area of science with the potential to deliver dramatic impact for patients and worked to build a company around it. It is an exciting addition to our cell therapy platform, where we are strategically and uniquely positioned with expertise across a range of modalities.”