Novasenta Inc., a startup biotechnology company focused on the discovery and validation of novel targets to develop cancer therapies, has completed a $40 million Series A financing round led by UPMC Enterprises, the innovation, venture capital and commercialization arm of leading health system UPMC. The funding will allow Novasenta to advance its pipeline of antibody-based therapeutics and expand its proprietary computational platforms for target discovery, while continuing to recruit top talent.
Novasenta comprehensively maps the tumor microenvironment — the network of cells and structures that surround and interact with tumor cells inside the body — to develop immunotherapies that enable the body's own immune system to fight cancer. Co-founded in late 2018 by Robert Ferris, M.D., Ph.D., Dario Vignali, Ph.D., and Greg Delgoffe, Ph.D., all of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh, Novasenta is building on decades of research in the fields of tumor biology, immunology, computational biology and drug discovery.
