Startup Founders from Hopkins Aim to Stop Metastasis

by Danny Jacobs AbMeta Therapeutics’ founders Denis Wirtz, INBT core researcher and vice provost for research at Johns Hopkins, Jamie Spangler, and Elizabeth Jaffee are combining years of pioneering research to target cancer metastasis, which is responsible for 90% of all cancer-related deaths.

“Patients with cancer don’t die from the primary tumors,” said Jaffee, deputy director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. “They die from metastasis.”

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures introduced Wirtz, Spangler, and Jaffee to Joseph Carroll, director of life sciences for the IP Group, a hard science investment firm that discovers and builds early-stage companies. Carroll was intrigued by the researchers’ innovations, as well as by having a clinician (Jaffee), bioengineer (Spangler), and biologist (Wirtz) as founders—three roles necessary in building a biotech company. Carroll created a plan and a funding model to build a startup around the trio.

“This opportunity just presented itself in such an exciting way that we couldn’t pass it up,” said Spangler, INBT affiliate researcher and biomedical engineering assistant professor. “It’s all about impact. How can I have the most impact in the shortest amount of time given the resources and training? I really see that as being at that interface between academic science and translational medicine.”

The Bisciotti Foundation Translational Fund awarded a grant for Spangler and Wirtz’s research through JHTV in 2020 and, combined with IP Group investment, the startup has secured nearly $2 million in funding. The company initially plans to target pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer, two aggressive forms of the disease, and aims to test its therapy in patients in the next five years. “Denis Wirtz is a provost at Hopkins, Liz Jaffee is a cancer center director, and Jamie Spangler is a superstar new faculty member,” said Carroll. “That’s an interesting triad that coalesced around a groundbreaking science, and we wanted to support this group and get their tech to market.”