GigaMune Closes Angel Financing to Advance Anti-Tumor T Cell Receptor Programs

Investors include Silicon Valley tech and biotech CEOs

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GigaMune

Apr 29, 2019, 06:00 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- On April 12, 2019, GigaMune secured a strategic convertible debt financing from a group of angel investors. The investors included several technology and biotech CEOs, who will provide GigaMune with strategic advice as the company grows.

"We are thrilled that GigaMune has been able to attract such high-caliber investors," said Dr. David Johnson, Co-Founder of GigaMune. "We look forward to leveraging the capital to address unmet clinical needs in solid tumors."

GigaMune will use the proceeds to advance its research program in anti-tumor T cell receptor (TCR) discovery. Certain TCRs, present in very small numbers in highly diverse human immune repertoires, can be directed against solid tumor antigens, which in many cases are shared across multiple tumor types and a large proportion of cancer patients. After identifying candidate TCRs, GigaMune will deploy them into autologous T cells from cancer patients for use in targeted cell therapy.

"Therapies based upon T cell receptors are an emerging therapeutic class, and have high potential to help patients suffering from multiple cancer types. We are hopeful that GigaMune's research will identify new therapeutic TCR candidates and advance them as promising therapies," said Thomas Chalberg, PhD, a serial biotech and medical device entrepreneur. "As an original investor in GigaGen, it is exciting to back the same founder team, and I look forward to helping GigaMune during this exciting stage of corporate development."

About GigaMune

GigaMune Inc. is a cancer cell therapy company focused on T cell receptor (TCR) discovery and development, founded in 2017 as a spin-out from GigaGen. GigaMune's patented TCR technologies facilitate discovery of rare TCRs from the immune repertoires of patients with exceptional response to cancer. GigaMune's research efforts benefit from a strategic partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. GigaMune is located in South San Francisco, California.

SOURCE GigaMune