Exclusive: Spark co-founder launches new CNS gene therapy biotech with $54M
Jang-Ho Cha had no interest in leaving his post at Novartis, where he led translational medicine for the pharma giant’s work in neuroscience.
But in the summer of 2022, he received a call from a leader in the field of gene therapy: Beverly Davidson, co-founder of Spark Therapeutics and director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She formed a biotech based on exciting vector capsid work coming out of her lab and wanted to see if Cha would join. The two had been friends for two decades, and given how much he admired her scientific rigor, he decided to listen to her pitch.
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