A new biotechnology company created through an Australian-Danish partnership will accelerate treatments for children and adults with heart disease. The company aims to use cell therapy to conduct human clinical trials within three to five years.
Launched today, Ibnova Therapeutics is the result of a world-first collaboration between Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Brisbane’s QIMR Berghofer. Within MCRI, this research is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). The center is headquartered in Copenhagen and has research hubs at the University of Copenhagen, Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and MCRI.
Denmark-based Ibnova Therapeutics is supported by the BioInnovation Institute (BII) Venture Lab Program and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellarator, and works to enable researchers to turn scientific breakthroughs into viable treatments.
Ibnova Therapeutics will advance the development and commercialization of stem cell-based heart failure treatments pioneered by Professor Enzo Porrello of MCRI and Professor James Hudson of QIMR Berghofer.
A research team including cardiac surgeons and cardiologists from Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and the Alfred Hospital has shown that human heart muscle grown in the lab can restore heart function after a heart attack. The research team also demonstrated that this approach is safe and effective in animal models.
The foundational intellectual property supporting Ibnova Therapeutics was made possible with significant support from reNEW, allowing MCRI researchers to advance these early-stage discoveries. This stem cell research has also received support for more than a decade from the Australian Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund and the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Heart failure is a life-threatening condition in which the heart struggles to pump enough blood around the body, and it affects more than 60 million people worldwide. Heart transplantation is the only viable treatment for end-stage heart failure, but the severe shortage of donor organs is a major ongoing challenge.
Andrew Lascully, executive director, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Ibnova Therapeutics, said the company’s mission is to bring cell therapy to heart failure patients as quickly and safely as possible.
“Thanks to Ibnova, we can now close some of medicine’s most challenging gaps by turning breakthrough biology into clinically actionable treatments,” he said. “By combining Australia’s discovery engine with Denmark’s translational ecosystem, we are building a focused path to first-in-human trials by aligning our manufacturing readiness, regulatory strategy and clinical partnerships. We are grateful for the opportunity to launch from the BioInnovation Institute in partnership with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellarator. This initiative reflects the multidisciplinary approach required to transform basic research into treatments that can be delivered to patients.”
BII Venture Lab provides early-stage funding, business development, and the foundation for companies to scale. Novo Nordisk Foundation Serrator provides expertise to manufacture engineered heart tissue to meet therapeutic requirements.
Professor Porrello, who is also a co-founder of Ibnova Therapeutics, said the company highlighted the need for early and continued investment in innovative technologies and the critical role of industry partnerships to enable advanced manufacturing and clinical trials.
“We are very excited to announce the launch of Ibnova Therapeutics and move our stem cell technology toward clinical trials,” he said. “This would not have been possible without the support of reNEW and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk Foundation ecosystem partners, such as Cellerator and the BioInnovation Institute.”
Professor Hudson, who is also a co-founder of Ibnova Therapeutics, said: “This technology was developed based on more than a decade of research into creating multicellular bioengineered tissues. The mechanical science behind this technology is critical to significantly improving heart function.”
reNEW’s mission is to translate the best stem cell science into the development of new treatments. Establishing Ibnova Therapeutics from research in the Australian node is exactly what we aim to achieve. ”
Professor Melissa Little, MCRI Principal Investigator and reNEW CEO
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Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
