Proprietary technology to fight against tumours
Macomics is a spinout company from the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, developing novel therapeutics to modulate the activity of macrophages, increasing the body’s immune defence against tumours in cancer sufferers.
They were supported by Edinburgh Innovations to take the research from the lab to spinout which has secured over £3m investment to do so.
State-of-the-art facilities and pioneering research
Cancer cells are known to be able to evade destruction by the immune system, and tumour associated macrophages (TAMs) are a key component of this immuno-suppressive and pro-tumoral ecosystem. The ability to modulate TAMs would alter the tumour microenvironment and thus enhance the body’s ability to fight cancer.
Professor Jeffrey Pollard, Director of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, is a pioneer of the study of TAMs and his research team was the first to demonstrate that they promote tumour progression and malignancy. The ground-breaking research he was conducting attracted future Macomics co-founder Dr Luca Cassetta, who was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the time, and in 2013 the team transplanted Professor Pollard’s laboratory from New York to The Queen’s Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. The move proved pivotal, as access to the University’s state-of-the-art research facilities enabled the team to successfully profile human TAMs and identify several targets for the first time.
Company formation support
It was at this crucial stage in Professor Pollard and Dr Cassetta’s research that they started considering the prospect of commercialisation, and they began discussions with Edinburgh Innovations. Neither founder had experience of forming a company and Dr Cassetta admits that while the idea had been in their minds,
The reality of creating a company was quite different, involving shares, negotiations, lawyers, plans, due diligence and a very rigorous process to evaluate the business plan. These are all aspects of company formation which need to be considered and understood. They take time, patience and a degree of flexibility.
The Edinburgh Innovations team were on hand to provide tailored expertise at every stage, assisting the founders with protecting their intellectual property, developing their business plan, patent submissions, as well as overall project management of the company formation process. This support empowered the academic founders to persist with forming Macomics, and the rigorous process ensured that the company is built on solid foundations and will serve the aims of all involved long term.
Investing in the future
Macomics harnesses world-leading expertise in macrophage biology, which in combination with the company’s proprietary technology will provide insights into TAMs and the tumour microenvironment, and lead to therapeutic discoveries that will increase the body’s immune defence against tumours across various cancers.
In service of this aim, the company has secured an investment £3.2 million in a seed round led by Epidarex Capital, a transatlantic life science VC that invests in early-stage, high-growth companies in under-ventured markets, along with the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise through the support and guidance of Edinburgh Innovations. The team was supported to become investor ready by the Enterprise team which provided the foundations of the success.
The macrophage-based approach that Macomics is pioneering has significant potential in the treatment of cancer, as recent deals in the tumour-associated macrophage area indicate. We look forward to working with the team to support Macomics’ growth and to help it realise the potential of its world-class science.
If you are interested in how Edinburgh Innovations can support your research ambitions, please get in touch.