国科嘉和系美元成长一期基金所投企业，由加州大学圣地亚哥分校（UCSD）的张良方教授创立的Cellics迎来一个重大好消息。针对突发的疫情，在过去的几个月内，Cellics的白细胞膜纳米海绵（Macrophage Nanosponge）技术一直被美国国家级的P4实验室进行针对新冠病毒的测试。经过对10多个批次样品的独立测试，Cellics研发的一种纳米海绵产品，已在细胞实验中证实可以“吸走”新冠病毒，对新冠病毒有显著效果，能够有效抑制高达90%的病毒感染性。这些测试结果经过同行专家评审后，在纳米领域的顶尖期刊Nano Letters上发表了他们的这一最新研究结果。在接下来的几个月里，团队将评估纳米海绵在动物模型内的有效性。如果它能取得进一步的概念验证，并证实其长期安全有效，则将有望在人体内检验抗击新冠病毒的效果。目前美国众多媒体对这一科研成果进行了广泛报道。

Cellics, a CASH Capital USD Fund portfolio company, announced Good news about its pioneering research and development for COVID-19 drug. In the past months, Macrophage Nanosponge, a technology developed by Cellics, has been used to perform independent tests on its ability to block SARS-CoV-2 infectivity by Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). In this BSL-4 lab—the highest biosafety level for a research facility experts tested the ability of various concentrations of each nanosponge type to reduce the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In the lab experiments, the results were quite promising: the nanosponges were shown to be quite effective in cell culture, both the lung cell and immune cell types.Nanosponges caused the SARS-CoV-2 virus to lose nearly 90% of its "viral infectivity" in a dose-dependent manner. After peer-reviewed by experts and scientists, this state-of-the-art research fighting COVID-19 was published on the June 17, 2020 issue of the prestigious journal Nano Letters, entitled “Cellular Nanosponges Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity” under the name of Cellics founder, Liangfang Zhang, Ph.D.

Cellics team has already conducted some preliminary safety tests in mice and larger scale trials in animal models will soon follow. Human trials are also being planned in the near future. The promising lab results and related publication have been reported widely by American presses.

Cellics公司是由张良方教授于2014年3月基于他的开创性纳米海绵(Nanosponge)平台技术而成立的。纳米海绵（Nanosponge）是一种用血球细胞膜包裹生物可降解聚合物核的纳米颗粒，可以作为引诱并清除各种破坏血球的（溶血性）毒素和病理的广谱药物。Cellics主要专注于开发细胞膜包覆的纳米海绵用于四种未得到满足的临床需求：传染病、罕见和极罕见疾病、广谱抗毒和疫苗。在罕见和极罕见疾病领域，Cellics主要针对攻击患者细胞的自体免疫类疾病，尤其是临床上只有类固醇类治疗法的疾病。除了用于疾病治疗，Cellics也在开发将纳米海绵用于针对多种疾病的疫苗开发。

Cellics Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately held development stage pharmaceutical company founded in 2014 by UC San Diego professor Liangfang Zhang based on his award-winning Nanosponge Technology. Cellics was created with the goal of applying the Nanosponge Technology to treat and prevent diseases. The Company’s primary focus at this time is on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and severeinfectious diseases. Cellics also aims to develop best-in-class vaccines for various diseases.

The nanosponges are designed to counteract diverse disease pathogens by acting as biomimetic decoys to sequester and neutralize biological molecules which would otherwise attack host cells. Product development currently emphasizes the use of nanosponges made of human red blood cell membrane and white blood cell membrane for the treatment of bacterial infections and inflammatory diseases. A similar merchanism can be applied with membranes of other cell types, making nanosponges suitable for large and diverse disease areas. Cellics has achieved proof of concept in animal models in a range of disease areas.

张良方教授是纳米医学领域的一名杰出学者，2013年，他曾入选《麻省理工科技评论》“35名35岁以下的创新者”（35 Innovators Under 35）榜单。其团队开创了用细胞膜来“包裹”纳米颗粒的仿生纳米技术，并利用这项技术来解决一系列生物医学问题。而本次的纳米海绵，则是这支科研团队的一个新尝试。

The founder of Cellics, prominent founder and professor, Liangfang Zhang, was named to list of "35 Innovators under 35” of MIT Technology Review in 2013 due to his pioneering work in cell membrane packaging of nanoparticles. And this time, nanosponge is this team’s new effort in nanotechnology medicines.

国科嘉和美元基金于2018年4月投资了Cellics A轮，是国科嘉和一直重点关注的创新型医药领域的优秀企业之一。Cellics项目是美国创新型制药理念开发者，它的纳米海绵等技术可以用在重度感染领域，在这个特殊的新冠肺炎爆发时期，它积累了近10年研发的技术成果价值得以体现。国科嘉和投资时便看中Cellics产品的高技术壁垒。纳米海绵药物产品的制备具有极高的技术壁垒，Cellics当时已经能够实现全自动的纳米海绵药物的CMC生产工艺，并能够进行规模化生产。其产品优势明显，均在其适应症细分领域无竞品，市场空间广阔，而且创始管理团队具有丰富药物研发和申报经验。Cellics这类企业是国科嘉和的投资喜好标的，是国科嘉和尊敬的真正能为人类社会带来福祉和贡献的、不断追求探索科学真理并重视实际应用的企业。

CASH Capital joined Cellics Series A venture capital financing in April 2018. It’s one of the innovative pharmaceutical technology companies CASH Capital invested. Cellics is a symbol of American pharmaceutical pioneer, with its nanosponge technology targeting severe infectious diseases, now including COVID-19. Its potential now has been seen on the spotlight.

When investing in 2018, CASH Capital focused on its high technological entry barrier.The research and development of the nanosponge drug products usually showed various technology difficulties, but Cellics had already been capable of large-scale production using automatic CMC manufacturing technique at that time. It has obvious product advantages, with no near competitors in the market, and its addressable market is huge-which means some of its products are expected to become blockbusters. Most importantly, the founders and management team have extensive experience in both drug discovery and development. Companies like Cellics, with its passion and goal to use advanced technology to help human live healthier and longer lives, are always CASH Capital’s preferences. CASH Capital has always been dedicated to realizing the common goal with our portfolio companies by facilitating technology commercialization.

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