A spinout from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland is already equipped with 15 million pounds sterling ($19 million) in seed funding as the newly unveiled biotech continues its mission to find one-time cancer treatments.
Trogenix, which launched last year and came out of stealth Monday morning, is centered around its Synthetic Super-Enhancers (SSEs), which are engineered DNA elements that the company says can “act as docking stations for transcription factors uniquely expressed in aggressive cancer cells.” The idea is that cancer cells can be killed so selectively that the therapies can be directly injected into tumors while offering immune modulation that ensures they aren’t detected by the cancer’s immune surveillance.
Even cells that escape the SSE therapy’s siege can’t expect a reprieve. Instead, the biotech’s so-called “Trojan horse” approach means a reawakened immune system will provide long-term protection from the cancer’s return. This offers the potential to deliver “one-and-done” treatments for aggressive tumors, the biotech suggested.
This Odysseus platform, named after the epic hero of the Trojan wars, has so far resulted in a glioblastoma-targeted program that the Scottish biotech said has “demonstrated curative responses with no toxicity and evidence of persistent anti-tumour immunity” in preclinical studies. A phase 1/2 trial is penciled in for 2025.
The tech’s origins lie in research at the University of Edinburgh’s U.K. Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology and Institute for Regeneration and Repair as well as the nonprofit Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre. Steve Pollard, a professor who works across both organizations, founded Trogenix along with London-based VC firm 4BIO Capital.
The firm oversaw a 15 million pound seed round for the biotech last year, Trogenix told Fierce Biotech, with IQ Capital, Cancer Research Horizons, the U.S. National Brain Tumor Society’s Brain Tumor Investment Fund, AIN Ventures and the University of Edinburgh’s own venture investment fund all participating.
Further back in development are programs in colorectal cancer liver metastases, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma and regenerative medicine. From this pipeline, the company has set itself the goal of submitting five requests to begin human trials within five years, which means Trogenix may soon be voyaging out for fresh funding to fuel its clinical ambitions.
“Our Odysseus platform represents a significant advancement in cancer treatment,” Pollard, who serves as Trogenix’s chief scientific officer, said in the Nov. 18 release. “By precisely targeting cancer cell states rather than just cell types, we can achieve unprecedented selectivity while activating the body's own immune system against the tumor. Our preclinical studies in glioblastoma have demonstrated complete responses with no toxicity and evidence of persistent anti-tumor immunity.”
Trogenix CEO Ken Macnamara, who moved across from Bayer’s AskBio gene therapy unit at the start of the year, said the SSE tech “represents a significant breakthrough in precision cancer therapy, offering unprecedented selectivity in targeting cancer cells and activating the body's own immune system against tumors, all while leaving healthy cells untouched.”