Allogenetics Raises €3.8 Million to Prepare a Trial of Ex Vivo Gene Therapy for Donor Lungs

Allogenetics Raises €3.8 Million to Prepare a Trial of Ex Vivo Gene Therapy for Donor Lungs

On September 9, the German biotechnology company Allogenetics closed a €3.8 million round. The funds will support IND-enabling studies (work needed to file an Investigational New Drug application, requesting regulatory permission to begin human trials) for ALG-115, a program in which a donor lung is treated with gene therapy outside the body before transplantation.

After a lung transplant, the recipient's immune system recognizes the foreign tissue by MHC I and II, molecules displayed on the surface of the organ's cells. These molecules signal that the tissue belongs to a different person and can trigger rejection. For this reason, patients are typically placed on immunosuppressive drugs after surgery.

ALG-115 shifts the intervention to the graft itself. While a perfusion machine maintains the donor lung outside the body, the organ is treated with gene therapy. In its round announcement, Allogenetics states that the program reduces MHC I and II levels on lung cells. The company aims to lower the recipient's immune recognition of the transplant while preserving the lung's own defenses against infection.

"When the intervention targets the donor organ, the recipient's immune system can be left intact," explained transplant surgeon Jeffrey Platt of the University of Michigan Medical School.