BlueWhale Bio has raised $18 million in a seed round led by Danaher Ventures, the venture arm of Washington, D.C.-based science and technology giant, Danaher Corp. Other investors include New Hampshire-based Novalis LifeSciences and British hedge fund Marshall Wace.
The Philadelphia-based startup was spun out of technology to overcome key bottlenecks in cell and gene therapy manufacturing, initially developed at the University of Pennsylvania. The technology was developed by BlueWhale Bio founders Carl June, the Richard W. Vague professor of Immunotherapy at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and James Riley, professor of Microbiology at Penn.
With an option from the University of Pennsylvania to enter into a license for rights to some Penn intellectual property, BlueWhale Bio aims to build a portfolio of products and services, and commercialize the technology. Late in 2022, BlueWhale Bio picked Peter Keller, who previously led Monopteros Therapeutics, to be a founding member and lead the company as CEO.
“This is an exciting time in cell therapy. With an increased focus on growth and adoption, cell-based therapies can become the next pillar of medicine,” said June, whose previous research helped created cell therapy to treat cancer. “I am thrilled that together we are looking to develop and commercialize a new cell therapy platform to improve patient care and save lives.” June is also a member of Danaher’s scientific advisory board.
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BlueWhale Bio is the first startup to emerge from the Danaher Ventures Pioneer Program, which was started with the aim of building companies that advance scientific research and improve lives on a global scale.
“Among the most powerful advanced biomedical therapies and technologies, cell and gene therapies have the potential to transform healthcare – but only if we can make them more accessible to the many patients who may ultimately need them,” said Murali Venkatesan, Ph.D., who heads Danaher Ventures and additionally serves as vice president for Science & Technology Innovation at Danaher Corp.
Venkatesan received engineering degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Stanford. He has previously worked at Lam Research and Illumina.
