Unlocking an expansive target space to build a pipeline of novel,
TCR-based therapeutics.
Our Science
At T-Cypher Bio we generate novel TCR-based therapeutics that have the potential to transform the treatment of immune-mediated disease. Our proprietary platforms provide unique insight into T cell based immunity in both health and disease. High throughput, high-resolution profiling of the immune synapse enables us to map the intracellular target space and profile T cell specificity. These platforms not only give us tools to build highly innovative drugs, but also build immune system data sets of unprecedented size. These data sets support cutting edge computational modelling of T cell repertoires which will revolutionize T cell immunology.
To build our oncology pipeline, we validate novel, shared, tumour-specific targets and identify panels of rare functionally-defined T cell clones. The unique TCRs we identify are the foundation of our broad pipeline of lifesaving therapeutics for underserved solid tumour patients.
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Our Team and Investors
We are a passionate, committed, friendly and diverse group of experts. Our expertise spans immunology, AI & bioinformatics to T-cell biology. We are led by a team of scientific and business leaders with a track record of developing successful biotechnology companies to benefit patients. We share a deep sense of duty to work with passion and develop our leading technologies for the benefit of patients.
We are backed by leading, specialist, long-term investors who share our passion and who facilitate our path to delivering lifesaving therapeutics.
Scientific Advisory Board
Professor Graham Ogg
Graham developed his life-long interest in T cell immunology while working with Professor Sir Andrew McMichael as a medical student in Oxford. After subsequent medical positions, he returned to Oxford for his DPhil, progressing to being an MRC Senior Clinical Fellow and consultant physician. Graham runs a laboratory at the MRC Translational Immune Discovery Unit, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford investigating the role of T cells in disease. His lab is focused on translating discoveries for applied patient benefit. A number of Graham’s inventions have been licensed by T-Cypher Bio which we have incorporated into our platforms. He is a founder of T-Cypher Bio and is chair of the SAB.
Professor Sir Andrew McMichael
Prof Sir Andrew McMichael has worked on T cell immune responses in humans since the 1970s. He was first to demonstrate virus-specific HLA restricted T cells in humans, and later identified the first peptide epitopes presented by HLA class I molecules. His group were first to show that HIV could escape T cell responses by mutating peptide epitopes to alter their presentation by HLA. He and others have since showed that this is a major feature of T cell responses to HIV. He and colleagues were first to show in 1998 that the non-classical non-polymorphic HLA class I molecule HLA-E presented a particular signal peptide to the natural killer cell receptor NKG2-CD94. Recently, it has been found that certain pathogens stimulate T cell responses restricted by HLA-E and Andrew’s group have explored and explained how HLA-E can bind low affinity peptides to stimulate protective T cell responses. This work opens up avenues for the development of universal TCR-based immunotherapies targeting HLA-E presenting pathogen, self and cancer peptides.
Professor Dame Fiona Powrie
Professor Dame Fiona Powrie is Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Governor of the Wellcome Trust. She gained a PhD in immunology at the University of Oxford and then moved to the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, before returning to Oxford in 1996 as a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. Prior to her appointment to the Kennedy Institute, Fiona was the Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology and Head of the Translational Gastroenterology Unit, Oxford. Her research examines the relationship between the intestinal microbiome and the host immune system and how this mutualistic relationship breaks down in inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and cancer. She has received numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2012, was elected an international member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020 and was appointed Dame Commander (DBE) by The Queen in 2022.
Professor Tao Dong
Tao Dong holds the post of Professor of Immunology in the MRC Human Immunology Unit at the University of Oxford and is a Senior Fellow at University College, Oxford. She was awarded a DPhil degree in Immunology in 1998 for pioneering work on HIV disease progression. In 2010 she became the Head of the human anti-viral and anti-cancer cytotoxic T cell laboratory, and subsequently Program Leader in the MRC Human Immunology Unit at the University of Oxford. For the past decade, her central goal has been to identify determinants of the ability of human tumour-specific cytotoxic T cells to control human tumour development and metastasis. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tao’s team has been working with colleagues in Oxford and China to understand the heterogeneity of impact of COVID-19 infection across groups of individuals.
Dr Nicola Ternette
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nicola Ternette trained in Physics and Biochemistry at the Universities of Bonn, Greifswald and Bochum in Germany. She pursued her post-graduate studies developing and evaluating DNA vaccines for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) at the Institute for Molecular and Medical Virology in Bochum in the laboratory of Professor Klaus Überla. Following her PhD, she specialized in sequencing of HLA-associated peptidomes using nanoflow ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) at the University of Oxford, with the focus on identification of viral antigens for the development of T cell vaccines. Since 2015, she heads the Antigen Discovery Group at Oxford. Her group has expanded their expertise to deep sequencing of immunopeptidomes in multiple pathogen infection models, analysis of the antigenic landscape of solid tumours and haematological cancers and characterisation of antigens involved in autoimmune diseases.
Professor Cassian Yee
Prof Yee completed his medical degree in Canada, followed by an internal medicine residency at Stanford before going on to an oncology fellowship at the University of Washington. Following this, Cassian reached the position of Professor at the University of Washington and Full Member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. Cassian’s research over the last 20 years has been focused on developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer. He is a pioneer in adoptive cell transfer (ACT). This involves the isolation of rare tumour antigen-specific T cells from the peripheral blood, manipulation of immune modulating factors to enhance their effector function and in vivo persistence and, expansion to numbers sufficient for adoptive transfer.
Board Members
Thomas Lars Andresen
Thomas L. Andresen was most recently the CSO of Torque Therapeutics, now Repertoire Immune Medicines, a company that has raised over $400m to support its primed adoptive cell transfer technology platform. While at Torque, Thomas led several cellular immunotherapy programs from early stage discovery, CMC scaling through to clinical development. Thomas is a serial entrepreneur, having founded several US and EU life-science companies including Torque Therapeutics, Nanovi A/S, and Monta Biosciences. His company creation track record spans early discovery through clinical development to commercial, and maps across immune and cellular therapy approaches in oncology. Thomas sits on several boards/advisory boards including Tidal Therapeutics (acquired by Sanofi), Monta Biosciences, and Nanovi. His scientific background is in biomedical and biological engineering. His impact in academia recently culminated in establishing the Institute of Health Technology at the Technical University of Denmark with a patient-focused mission to innovate life changing health technologies. The Institute hosts over 500 researchers, and Thomas maintains a professorial position in drug engineering at the institute. He has co-authored over 200 research articles, is named on 45 patent applications and has received multiple research prizes including the Elite Research Price from the Danish Ministry of Science.
Claire Brown
Claire joined Oxford Science Enterprises in May 2021. Prior to this she has had a varied career across the BioPharmaceutical industry from R&D strategy, licensing, business development and corporate investment, in the UK and US. Notable experience includes roles at UCB Group, Sanofi-Genzyme and AstraZeneca across a diverse range of therapy areas and modalities. Until joining Oxford Science Enterprises, Claire held the position of Investment Director at BioCity and has served on the board of a number of Life Science companies including Rinri Therapeutics, Kinomica, T -Cypher and Dark Blue Therapeutics. Claire received her BSc in Physiology and PhD in Pharmacology in Glasgow. She also holds an MBA focused on entrepreneurship as well as certificates in Investment Management (IMC) and Company Board Direction.
Phil Ferneau
Phil co-founded Borealis Ventures in 2002 and has led the firm’s healthcare investing from its inception. He currently leads Borealis’ investments in Adimab, Amagma, Avitide, Compass Therapeutics, Evox Therapeutics, Orbit Discovery, Ovation.io, Teckro, and T-Cypher Bio. Phil's prior investments include Avedro (IPO, then acquired by Glaukos), GlycoFi (acquired by Merck & Co.), M2S (acquired by AIG Altaris Health Partners), and Vets First Choice (Nasdaq: CVET). Phil has also spent over 20 years advancing innovation ecosystems at Dartmouth College and other universities. He is an adjunct professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, teaching venture capital topics. Phil received an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College, a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a M.B.A. (with High Distinction) from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Shyam Masrani
Shyam is a Principal at Medicxi. Prior to joining Medicxi, Shyam founded two early-stage biotechnology companies (Shyden Biotechnology and Cleavr Therapeutics). He led Medicxi's investment in Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) and ProfoundBio and currently serves on the boards of a number of portfolio companies, including T-Cypher Bio, My-T Bio, and CosMyc Therapeutics. Shyam obtained a BSc in Biochemistry and a Masters in Translational Medicine from Imperial College London.
Sohaib Mir
Sohaib Mir is a Senior Investment Principal at LifeArc. Most recently he was an Investment Director with ALSA Ventures, focused on therapeutics investing. Prior to that he was a Principal at Cambridge Innovation Capital and he has also worked at Perella Weinberg Partners. Sohaib qualified in Medicine at the University of Birmingham where he also completed a PhD in CNS regeneration. He practised medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and gained an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.
Leadership Team
Thomas Lars Andresen
Thomas L. Andresen was most recently the CSO of Torque Therapeutics, now Repertoire Immune Medicines, a company that has raised over $400m to support its primed adoptive cell transfer technology platform. While at Torque, Thomas led several cellular immunotherapy programs from early stage discovery, CMC scaling through to clinical development. Thomas is a serial entrepreneur, having founded several US and EU life-science companies including Torque Therapeutics, Nanovi A/S, and Monta Biosciences. His company creation track record spans early discovery through clinical development to commercial, and maps across immune and cellular therapy approaches in oncology. Thomas sits on several boards/advisory boards including Tidal Therapeutics (acquired by Sanofi), Monta Biosciences, and Nanovi. His scientific background is in biomedical and biological engineering. His impact in academia recently culminated in establishing the Institute of Health Technology at the Technical University of Denmark with a patient-focused mission to innovate life changing health technologies. The Institute hosts over 500 researchers, and Thomas maintains a professorial position in drug engineering at the institute. He has co-authored over 200 research articles, is named on 45 patent applications and has received multiple research prizes including the Elite Research Price from the Danish Ministry of Science.
Nathaniel Davies
Nathaniel joined T-Cypher as Head of Computational Biology in April 2021. Prior to this, he led the early-stage computational work at Nucleome Therapeutics. Nathaniel's experience includes three years' work at Immunocore, leading work on TCR-based drug discovery databases and bioinformatics analysis pipelines. Nathaniel is passionate about using his cross-disciplinary experience to help bridge the gap between the computational and biological sciences. Nathaniel holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester, an MSci in Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence from Loughborough University, and carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Birmingham studying the immune evasion mechanisms of pancreatic cancer.
Mark Lees
Mark joined T-Cypher as VP Corporate Development in June 2021. Mark joined from Mestag Therapeutics where, as VP Strategy and Operations, he supported the company through significant financing rounds and collaborative transactions. Prior to Mestag, Mark was VP Strategy and Operations at F-star Therapeutics supporting the development of their novel bispecific platform. Prior to that, Mark led executive operations at Immunocore, working on financing and leading strategic projects in support of Immunocore’s soluble TCR platform. Mark holds a Masters of Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, a PhD in Genetics & Immunology from Imperial College London, and an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Sarah Leonard
Sarah joined T-Cypher Bio in March 2022. Sarah joins us from Oxford Science Enterprises where, as a Scientist in Residence she was generating innovative new portfolio companies capable of tackling disease areas with major unmet need. Prior to this Sarah was at Immunocore where she led a team of scientists to generate novel donor-unrestricted T cell therapeutics against oncology and infectious disease targets. She was also involved in the successful delivery of an HBV-bispecific to clinical trial for the treatment of chronic Hepatitis B. Prior to Immunocore, Sarah held a Translational Research Fellowship with Ovacome at the University of Birmingham, where she worked on novel drugs and biomarkers to predict disease progression and chemo resistance in cancer patients. She has also held a number of post-doctoral positions, including with Janssen Pharmaceuticals where she delivered the pre-clinical package for an epigenetic drug combination that went into an acute myeloid leukaemia clinical trial.