Watertown, Mass. — ai3Bio, a biotechnology company focused on autoimmune disease, launched with $48 million in Series A funding to advance its antibody- and lipid nanoparticle-based therapeutic platforms aimed at targeting and eliminating disease-causing Th17 cells in vivo.
The financing round was led by founding investors UPMC Enterprises and Ziff Capital Partners and also included Cockrell Interests and Tanis Ventures.
The company said the proceeds will be used to advance its two platforms, including IND-enabling studies designed to support first-in-human clinical trials in autoimmune disease.
ai3Bio said its approach is designed to reset the immune system by directly targeting and eliminating disease-causing Th17 cells in a single step. The company said current therapies generally suppress the immune system more broadly to manage symptoms, while leaving the underlying disease-driving cells in place.
“Despite billions of dollars of investment, no therapeutic on the market today delivers lasting remission for the more than 15 million Americans who live with autoimmune diseases,” said Steven Altschuler, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of ai3Bio. “We founded ai3Bio to reimagine autoimmune care, shifting the focus from broadly suppressing inflammation to precisely removing the underlying cause of disease — with a goal of providing patients with a one-step treatment.”
The company is advancing two platforms based on that strategy: STARx and T Deplete. STARx uses a lipid nanoparticle to deliver mRNA that triggers a targeted anti-inflammatory self-destruct process in disease-causing Th17 cells. T Deplete uses a targeting antibody to recruit the body’s immune cells to clear the same cells.
ai3Bio said preclinical testing of blood samples from patients with autoimmune disease showed that its lipid nanoparticle technology effectively removed disease-causing Th17 cells. The company added that its antibody platform demonstrated efficacy in a non-human primate model, with IND-enabling safety studies underway.
Jonathan Kagan, Ph.D., Scientific Co-founder and Distinguished Scientist at ai3Bio, said the company’s approach is intended to eliminate the Th17 cells that produce inflammatory cytokines associated with autoimmune disease.
“By combining our AI discovery platform with a deeper understanding of the immune system, we are focused on selectively removing pathogenic Th17 cells in vivo while preserving the function of the rest of the immune system,” said Kagan, who is also the Marian R. Neutra, Ph.D. Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Director of Basic Research and Shwachman Chair in Gastroenterology at Boston Children’s Hospital.
ai3Bio is led by Altschuler, Kagan, Chief Technology Officer Michael Lyman, Ph.D., and Chief Financial and Business Officer Nick Seaver.
The company’s Scientific Advisory Board includes John Maraganore, Ph.D., founding CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, along with immunologists Vijay Kuchroo, DVM, Ph.D., Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D., Alexander Rudensky, Ph.D., and Arlene Sharpe, M.D., Ph.D.
Fabian Tenenbaum, Executive Vice President of UPMC Enterprises and Board Chair of ai3Bio, said the company’s technology has the potential to support disease-modifying therapies across a wide range of autoimmune conditions.
