Allogenetics Raises €3.8M Pre-Series A to Advance Ex Vivo Gene Therapy for Rejection-Resistant Donor Lungs
核心洞察
Allogenetics (搜索) closed a €3.8 million Pre-Series A round led by NBank Capital (搜索) with CARMA FUND (搜索), Life Science Valley Wachstumsfonds (搜索) and private investors.
Proceeds will fund IND-enabling studies for ALG-115 (搜索), an ex vivo gene therapy for donor lungs, with first-in-human trials planned for late 2027 to early 2028.
ALG-115 (搜索) knocks down MHC class I (搜索) and II expression in donor organs to reduce rejection while preserving immune protection, aiming to eliminate lifelong immunosuppression.
Allogenetics (搜索), a Hanover, Germany-based biotechnology company developing a one-time ex vivo gene therapy for organ transplantation, has completed a €3.8 million Pre-Series A financing round. The round was led by NBank Capital (搜索), with participation from CARMA FUND (搜索), Life Science Valley Wachstumsfonds (搜索) and additional corporate and private investors. The proceeds will support the company's lead program, ALG-115 (搜索), through IND-enabling studies toward first-in-human trials in lung transplantation, planned to start between the end of 2027 and early 2028.
The financing follows Allogenetics (搜索)' €3.4 million seed round in 2024, which was co-led by NBank and CARMA. Combined, the two rounds bring the company's publicly disclosed financing to €7.2 million.
An Organ-Side Approach to Graft Rejection
Rather than suppressing the transplant recipient's immune system for life, Allogenetics (搜索) treats the donor organ itself before transplantation. ALG-115 (搜索) is administered to the donor lung while the organ is maintained outside the body using ex vivo perfusion. The therapy reduces expression of MHC class I (搜索) and II — known as HLA in humans — which serve as key recognition signals for immune cells.
The underlying research used lentiviral vectors carrying short hairpin RNAs to turn down these molecules rather than completely eliminating them. According to the company, this calibrated knockdown is intended to avoid making cells vulnerable to attack by natural killer cells, thereby preserving immune protection while preventing rejection.
"The close of our Pre-Series A financing represents an important step for Allogenetics (搜索) as we transition from a solid scientific and preclinical foundation toward clinical development," said Oliver Ernst, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Allogenetics. "By tackling key challenges in organ transplantation from a different angle, we believe our new concept has the potential to change the treatment paradigm and address major challenges such as graft rejection (搜索) and the side effects of long-term immunosuppression."
Preclinical Evidence in Lung Transplantation
In a 2024 study published in Science Translational Medicine, seven minipigs received MHC-silenced lung grafts and seven received control grafts, with immunosuppression stopped after four weeks. Five of the seven animals receiving engineered lungs survived the full two-year monitoring period without rejection, while all seven control animals rejected their grafts within three months.
Allogenetics (搜索) now reports that survival in its pig model has reached eight years without maintenance immunosuppression. The company's stated goal for ALG-115 (搜索) is to reduce graft loss while eliminating the need for lifelong immunosuppression.
The approach targets a substantial unmet need in lung transplantation. Five-year survival remains about 59%, and recipients typically require chronic immunosuppression that leaves them vulnerable to infections, malignancies and other complications. Lifelong reliance on immunosuppressants also imposes a significant compliance burden on patients.
Investor Rationale and Remaining Questions
"We believe Allogenetics (搜索) is at an exciting inflection point, with compelling preclinical evidence backing the applicability and transformative potential of its innovative gene therapy approach," said Susanne Hauck, Investment Manager of NBank Capital (搜索). "Allogenetics' differentiated organ-side technology, combined with the strength of its scientific and leadership team, gives us confidence in its potential to address important unmet needs in transplantation."
The company describes its platform as organ-agnostic, with lung grafts as the first clinical application. Allogenetics (搜索) frames the approach as a potential path toward addressing both life-threatening conditions in transplantation and the global organ shortage crisis.
However, the supporting dataset remains small and preclinical. Jeffrey Platt, a University of Michigan transplant biologist not involved in the study, previously cautioned that the immune barrier in the minipig model was "lower than it would be for human-to-human transplants," meaning the result may not directly predict human efficacy. Whether the eight-year survival observed in pigs translates into durable graft acceptance in patients will only be determined once ALG-115 (搜索) enters clinical evaluation.