GammaDelta Therapeutics, a company built on the research of
Adrian Hayday and Oliver Nussbaumer from the Francis Crick
Institute and King's College London, has secured a $100m (£77m)
collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Takeda.
Adrian and Oliver are the scientific co-founders of GammaDelta
Therapeutics, which was formed in August 2016 to translate their
work on human gamma delta T cells into the clinic. Now with
Takeda's support, they are aiming to use this novel T-cell approach
to discover and develop new immunotherapies with the aim of
treating a broad range of cancers, including solid tumours, and
autoinflammatory diseases.
Adrian Hayday, Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and
Kay Glendinning Professor in the Peter Gorer Department of
Immunobiology at King's College London, says: "I am immensely
grateful to very many people for accelerating our path toward the
clinic, starting from incredibly basic research on cells that were
once not even thought to exist in humans. We all understandably
excited to see this translational potential develop and will do our
very best to make it a success."
Veronique Birault, Head of Translation at the Crick, says: "This
substantial investment is great recognition of the incredible
progress made by the GammaDelta team since the company started.
This shows how high quality discovery science is essential to
generate seed-corn for translation, where research can be
accelerated to improve health and bring investment into small
businesses."
Paolo Paoletti, CEO of GammaDelta Therapeutics, says: "The
pioneering research developed by Professor Adrian Hayday and Dr.
Oliver Nussbaumer at King's College London and the Francis Crick
Institute, the scientific founders of our company, forms the basis
for the development of potentially transformational treatments for
cancer and autoinflammatory diseases. We believe the collaboration
with Takeda validates our novel approach and should allow us to
move rapidly to the clinic."