Versant Ventures has committed $30 million to improve gene delivery. By pumping the cash into Vector BioPharma, the VC is aiming to address the limitations of existing systems such as the cap on the size of the genetic cargo.
Viral gene delivery technologies such as AAV have unlocked opportunities to treat genetic diseases but suffer from shortcomings that are limiting their impact. The shortcomings have spurred research into alternative delivery systems designed to have tissue-specific targeting, larger genome packaging capacity and reduced risk of immunogenic reactions.
Versant identified the work at Andreas Plückthun’s, Ph.D., laboratory at the University of Zürich as one of the more promising attempts to address the challenge. The laboratory engineered a viruslike particle to achieve cell- and tissue-specific delivery of large payloads with high specificity, leading to the creation of Vector to build on the platform.
“Our platform has significant advantages thanks to the unprecedented size of cargo that can be delivered, our proprietary capsid shielding technology and our ability to precisely target virtually any cell surface epitope,” Vector CEO Lorenz Mayr, Ph.D., said in a statement. “We are confident that our approach will offer patients therapies with improved safety, efficacy and specificity.”
Vector is combining viruslike particles, which could have reduced immunogenicity because of their lack of viral genes, with designed, exogenous, high-avidity adapter proteins to enable delivery to target cells or tissues. The biotech engineers the viral capsid and shields it from the immune system, opening the door to the delivery of multiple gene cassettes with a genome packaging capacity of up to 36 kb. AAVs have a capacity of 4.7 kb, limiting the list of diseases they can treat.
Versant launched the biotech out of its Ridgeline Discovery Engine in Basel, Switzerland. Led by Mayr, who previously worked at companies including Bayer, Novartis and AstraZeneca, Vector has built a 40-person team to support its push to deliver in vivo data on its lead programs next in the first half of next year.