Invoke Bio, Immunectra win $100K QB3 mentoring awards for precision cancer vaccines, MS diagnostic
Two biotech startups, Invoke Bio and Immunectra, won $100K proof-of-concept awards from QB3 after pitching their technology at Bakar Bio Labs on Thursday, June 11. The live pitch session included founders from six companies selected from the QB3 mentoring program, which helps scientific entrepreneurs shape their companies for investment.
The annual QB3 awards support R&D for nascent biotech companies making, or soon to make, the transition to incubator operations. The funds can be used for proof-of-concept experiments or to rent incubator space.
“Our mentor group chooses the winners based on their potential to succeed commercially,” said Kaspar Mossman, managing director of QB3. “Mentors work with founders to minimize scientific, business, and regulatory challenges, to make the companies investable, and move these therapies and diagnostics toward the clinic.
Invoke Bio was represented by CEO and co-founder TJ Sears, a UCSD postdoc converting his research into precision cancer vaccines
“This funding will help catalyze our mission to deliver personalized immunotherapies for patients fighting cancer,” Sears said. “Every week that we shave off our discovery and validation pipeline is a week sooner a patient gets a vaccine designed specifically for their tumor. This award accelerates critical R&D at UCSD and sets up our next phase of functional work at Bakar Bio Labs.”
Invoke sequences a patient’s tumor, and uses AI to determine a target signature for the tumor that a vaccine could employ to stimulate an anticancer immune response. Outcomes are fed back into the AI to improve the model. They’ve treated three patients already — with promising results — and will soon start Phase 1 clinical trials at Stanford Medicine and Mount Sinai. Sears is advised in the QB3 program by Brian Atwood, a veteran executive and investor, formerly managing director at Versant Ventures.
Immunectra was pitched by CEO and co-founder Caroline Vissers, who just recently left a faculty position at UCSF to commercialize cutting-edge immune profiling strategies for autoimmune indications, starting with the first-ever diagnostic test for multiple sclerosis.
“The QB3 award is great validation of our commercial traction and excitement for revolutionizing the standards of autoimmune diagnostics,” Vissers said. “The monetary award will allow for rapid commercial optimization of our MS diagnostic test, and the continued advisement by QB3 mentors, especially Mickey Urdea, has been invaluable for pressure-testing our business strategy.”
While therapies exist which can slow progression of MS, this neurodegenerative condition is typically diagnosed more than one year after onset of symptoms. Delayed diagnosis correlates with significantly worse long-term patient prognosis and cost of care. Based on breakthrough discoveries at UCSF, Immunectra’s is commercializing a blood test that can detect MS years before clinical onset, Vissers says, creating the potential to stop MS in its tracks before permanent damage occurs. Vissers is advised in the QB3 program by Mickey Urdea, a world authority in diagnostics and founder of the consulting firm Halteres Associates.
Previous QB3 award recipients include Dogma Biotech, which develops humanized glycosylation for enzyme biologics; Sphinxion Therapeutics, which engineers gene therapy for fibrotic disease; and Kopra Bio, which creates a viral anti-cancer therapy.
The QB3 mentoring program takes applications three times a year. The next application deadline is October 9, 2026. For more information visit the program webpage.
