Clade Therapeutics

Clade has been established with the aim of discovering and delivering scalable next generation induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived medicines.

iPSCs are a type of pluripotent stem cell which can be generated directly from mature cells (such as those of the skin or blood). They hold great promise in the field of regenerative medicine, because they are able to multiply indefinitely, can be stored for long periods, and can produce tissue cells of any kind.

Clade’s work centres on its proprietary technology platform, which enables the immune “cloaking” of iPSCs. This means that when these cells are introduced to a patient, they are protected, or “cloaked”, from the individual’s own immune system. Potentially, this technology could allow for the creation of “off the shelf” treatments in donor derived cell therapies, which currently must engage with the challenge of introducing foreign cells to a patient without triggering a reaction from their own immune system. Clade is initially exploring the use of its iPSC technology in cancers, with a best-in-class approach to hypoimmunogenic engineering potentially allowing for a differentiated durability in response compared to other stem-cell based therapies.

The company is led by CEO Dr Chad Cowan, scientific co-founder of CRISPR Therapeutics and former Associate Professor at Harvard University in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Dr. Jim Glasheen, Chief Business Officer at Clade, co-founder of Atlanta Therapeutics and former general partner at Technology Partners Venture Capital. The company's leadership team have an unparalleled expertise in generating various different kinds of cells (including T, NK and B cells) from stem cells, helping to position Clade to be a leader in the iPSC space.