{"id":5214,"date":"2023-04-20T16:05:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=5214"},"modified":"2024-08-20T12:55:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T16:55:12","slug":"purdue-ventures-invests-in-antibody-based-cancer-therapeutics-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/Q2\/purdue-ventures-invests-in-antibody-based-cancer-therapeutics-company","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Ventures invests in antibody-based cancer therapeutics company"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —<\/p> \n

Purdue Ventures<\/a>, which manages three funds to support Purdue University-connected startups, has invested $250,000 in TRIO Pharmaceuticals Inc.<\/a>, a cancer immunotherapeutics startup founded by a Purdue University biophysics and structural biology alumnus. The company\u2019s antibody-based therapeutics strengthens the body\u2019s defense, the immune system, to eradicate cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Purdue Ventures\u2019 investment is part of a larger $2.2 million series seed-funding round that includes investments from investor groups in the U.S. and Japan: NuFund Venture Group, SeedFolio, Friedman BioVentures, Tech Coast Angels, Newsight Tech Angels and others.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Shiva Bhowmik, Purdue University alumnus and TRIO Pharmaceuticals founder and COO (TRIO Pharmaceuticals photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Shiva Bhowmik, TRIO\u2019s founder and chief operating officer, said traditional approaches to developing anticancer drugs focus on eliminating cancer cells and activating the body\u2019s immune system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese approaches don\u2019t lead to the full enhancement of the body\u2019s immunity to fight cancer because there is another bad actor involved: immunosuppressive cells,\u201d he said. \u201cThese cells reduce the immune system\u2019s ability to fight infections and diseases like cancer. TRIO Pharmaceuticals is the only company that has figured out how to selectively eliminate this bad actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut if you eliminate just immunosuppressive cells, there isn\u2019t a very strong enhancement of antitumor activity. So, the crux of what TRIO Pharmaceuticals does is to enhance antitumor immunity with a mix of directly eliminating both cancer cells and immunosuppressive cells.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhowmik said Purdue Ventures\u2019 investment and the funding round will allow TRIO to advance its technology and find the best drug candidates to further develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis milestone is very critical for us,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce we achieve it, it opens us up for further collaborations with large pharmaceutical companies and the possibility to raise future rounds of funding.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRIO has significant ties to Purdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI earned my PhD in biophysics and structural biology from Purdue,\u201d Bhowmik said. \u201cDuring my tenure, Wayne Hockmeyer gave a talk as a distinguished alumnus of the Department of Biological Sciences<\/a>. He had founded MedImmune, one of the world\u2019s most renowned biotechnology companies that was eventually acquired by AstraZeneca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWayne\u2019s journey inspired me. He served his country as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army; he earned his doctorate and founded MedImmune. I was always very inclined to be an entrepreneur, and Wayne\u2019s story inspired me to become an entrepreneur. Coincidentally, the structural biology building was dedicated to Wayne. I\u2019m excited to maintain TRIO\u2019s connections with Purdue through this investment from Purdue Ventures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riley Gibb, associate director of Purdue Ventures, said TRIO Pharmaceuticals is a strong addition to the investment portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTRIO is doing groundbreaking work in cancer therapeutics, which captured the interest of the investment committee,\u201d he said. \u201cThe company has a unique perspective to address a worldwide problem. That and their connections with Purdue University make them a company we are proud to support and to follow their growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue Ventures<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With almost $20 million under current management, Purdue Ventures<\/a> manages multiple pools of capital in collaboration with the university ecosystem and local corporations, enabling Purdue startups to improve the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About TRIO Pharmaceuticals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TRIO Pharmaceuticals Inc.<\/a>\u00a0is a cancer immunotherapeutics company pioneering dual-action drugs to generate immunogenic tumors. TRIO\u2019s innovative antibody drugs directly stop tumor growth and selectively stop immunosuppression in the tumor without targeting the current immune checkpoint pathways. TRIO is developing a proprietary platform of dual-action tumor immunity-enhancing drugs aimed at treating cancers of high unmet medical needs by targeting specific antigens on the cancer cells and immunosuppressor cells. TRIO has an experienced team that has developed first-in-class FDA-approved drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Writer\/Media contact:<\/strong>\u00a0Steve Martin,\u00a0sgmartin@prf.org<\/a>
Sources:<\/strong>\u00a0Shiva Bhowmik,\u00a0shiva@triopharmaceuticals.com<\/a>, Riley Gibb,\u00a0rtgibb@prf.org<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue Ventures, which manages three funds to support Purdue University-connected startups, has invested $250,000 in TRIO Pharmaceuticals Inc., a cancer immunotherapeutics startup founded by a Purdue University biophysics and structural biology alumnus. The company\u2019s antibody-based therapeutics strengthens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,316],"tags":[],"department":[24],"source":[35],"purdue_today_topic":[72],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-5214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-prf","department-research-foundation","source-purdue-research-foundation","purdue_today_topic-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5218,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions\/5218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}