BlueWhale Bio: After emerging from stealth mode in 2023, BlueWhale aims to develop a technology platform and product portfolio that will provide the benefits of cell therapy to patients more quickly and at lower cost. The company was co-founded by Penn faculty members Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy at Professor of Medicine and James Riley, PhD, Professor of Microbiology at Penn Medicine.
Carisma Therapeutics: A PCI Ventures portfolio company co-founded by Saar Gill, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology-Oncology) at Penn Medicine, Carisma is attempting to harness the power of macrophages to create cellular therapies for patients with cancer and other serious disorders.
iECURE: Founded by Jim Wilson, MD, PhD, the Rose H. Weiss Orphan Disease Center Director’s Professor at Penn Medicine, iECURE is a clinical-stage gene editing company dedicated to developing mutation-agnostic in vivo gene insertion therapies for treating liver disorders.
Passage Bio: Also founded by Jim Wilson, MD, PhD, Passage Bio is developing transformative therapies for patients suffering from central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The company’s primary focus is on creating gene therapies designed to address the underlying pathology of neurodegenerative diseases.
Verismo Therapeutics: Verismo is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company co-founded by Michael Milone, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Donald Siegel, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn Medicine, that aims to develop next-generation CAR T-cell therapies using a novel KIR-CAR platform to improve T-cell persistence and efficacy, especially in challenging solid tumor environments.