CUREator funds 19 new biotech projects

CUREator, Australia’s national biotech incubator, has announced its second round of funding, awarding $12 million to 19 projects targeting global health challenges including advances in treatment for lupus, motor neurone disease, brain and ovarian cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease.

CUREator is delivered through an initial $40m in funding from the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and $3m from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. CUREator was established by Brandon Capital in 2021 as a new approach for bridging the gap between where research grant funding ends and commercial investment begins.

GILZRx, an early-stage biotechnology company, based at Monash University, is one of 12 companies that have received funding as part of CUREator’s latest $6m pre-clinical funding stream round. GILZRx is developing a novel approach for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases including lupus.

Projects in the pre-clinical stream are highly novel and are in the early stages of establishing proof of concept. CUREator funding paves the way for further investment which will advance the research into therapies with the potential to have global health impacts.

“Receiving this funding is a crucial milestone for us. It enables us to take our research to the next level and validates the groundbreaking potential of our work. Ultimately, our goal is to take our research out of the lab and make a tangible impact in people’s lives, and this funding is the first step towards achieving that,” said Dr Sarah Jones of GILZRx.

Dr Chris Nave, CEO of Brandon BioCatalyst, said the CUREator program has revealed the strength of translational research being conducted in Australia.

“CUREator, with support from the federal government, is revolutionising how grant funding is given in Australia by prioritising outcomes with a commercial lens.

“The incubator delivers focused funding like an investor and is designed to achieve key development milestones with hands-on support and access to expertise and networks.”

“The number of high-calibre projects submitted from across the nation to our incubator demonstrates the need for this missing link in funding,” said Dr Amanda Vrselja, Program Head of CUREator.

“To continue to support the research translational infrastructure, CUREator must be a long-term strategy with further support from the federal government.

“The program has supported more than 40 Australian projects so far and is building momentum within the ecosystem, but ensuring a funding pathway to support these exciting therapies beyond this translationally focused funding is crucial.” Vrselja continued.

Round two of CUREator also provides $3m to progress the clinical development of novel, clinical-stage drug therapies to improve patient outcomes. Cyteph from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute is one of two companies to receive this stream of funding for their phase one clinical study validating a novel T-cell therapy for the treatment of brain cancer.

“We are thrilled to be selected for CUREator, not only for the funding but for the support and expertise the program also provides. This support will assist us as we progress in our phase one study testing the safety and efficacy of our novel therapy for the treatment of recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme, a severe form of brain cancer,” Professor Rajiv Khanna said.

“Our novel research discovery, combined with the support of CUREator, increases the likelihood of Cyteph securing additional funding in the future.”

CSIRO’s initial funding contribution of $3m to CUREator’s second round has supported five companies to develop technologies focused on bolstering Australia’s health security and safeguarding against pandemics and emerging infectious diseases.

Round 3 will see continued support from CSIRO with an additional $3m of funding delivered through CUREator to fund commercially orientated projects seeking to minimise antimicrobial resistance.

Brandon BioCatalyst, in collaboration with ANDHealth, was recently awarded a further $50m from the MRFF to administer the BioMedTech Incubator (BMTI) program through CUREator. This funding boost will widen CUREator’s scope of support to include medtech and digital health alongside the development of therapeutics and brings CUREator’s total funds under management to $96m. This program will officially launch later this year.

The incubator offers multiple streams of funding alongside program support to accelerate promising Australian projects with commercial potential focused on preclinical biomedical research and medical innovations, clinical-stage therapeutics, health security innovations and solutions for minimising antimicrobial resistance.

Applications for the next round of funding are now open and interested researchers and biotech companies are invited to apply via the CUREator webpage.

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