Trinity trio’s biotech start-up secures £65 million to progress drug development

A Cambridge biotech start-up created by three Trinity members to treat the rare and incurable condition amyloidosis has raised £65 million in investment to power the proof-of-concept in the clinic with patients.

Nobel Laureate Sir Gregory Winter, Professor Daniel Christ and Professor Sir Mark Pepys founded Immutrin, which seeks to activate the body’s natural defence mechanisms, via antibody therapies, to combat amyloidosis.

Amyloidosis is a series of conditions caused by the protein amyloid building up in the heart, liver, kidney, nerves or digestive system, which damages the organ and can be fatal.

Existing treatments can slow the progression of the condition but do not remove the underlying cause. Immutrin’s antibody therapy seeks to galvanise the body’s immune system to remove the accumulated proteins.

The latest investment, enabled by Cambridge Innovation Capital, will fund Immutrin’s proof of concept research targeted at ATTR cardiomyopathy, but could have application for other types of amyloidosis.

The former Master of Trinity Sir Gregory Winter (pictured above) shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way of making human antibodies for therapeutic treatments and founded a series of successful companies, making new drugs available to patients.

His first start-up, Cambridge Antibody Technology, developed the top-selling drug HUMIRA, and was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006. With another Trinity alumnus, Dr Ian Tomlinson, Sir Gregory founded Domantis Ltd, which developed ever-smaller antibody-based drugs and was bought by GlaxoSmithKline in 2007.

Professor Daniel Christ (pictured below), who is Head of Antibody Therapeutics at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, studied at Trinity, became a Fellow and worked with Sir Gregory at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

Professor Sir Mark Pepys has specialised in amyloidosis for 40 years. He was a Fellow at Trinity 1973-1977 and was elected an Honorary Fellow in 2014.

Banner images of Trinity trio courtesy of Immutrin.