Expertise in the field from years of experience.

What’s our goal?

Autoimmune diseases are presently treated with agents that suppress not only the disease-causing cells, but also the cells that normally prevent autoimmunity.  These agents can halt the progression of disease, but rarely cure and have serious adverse side effects.  Our proprietary nanoparticles instead specifically target and reprogram the immune cells that reverse established diseases. This should result in long term remission without the adverse consequences of suppressive agents. In addition, our targeted nanoparticles can be used to prevent autoimmune diseases in highly susceptible individuals.

Who are we?

Dr. Horwitz is a physician/scientist internationally recognized for his work in T cell biology, especially related to immune regulation. He characterized many abnormalities of the immune system in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, the prototype of human autoimmune diseases. He was the first to recognize the role of the IL-2 and TGF-β hormone-like growth factors that are required for the development of immune cells that prevent autoimmunity. These cells are regulatory/suppressor cells called Tregs and are deficient in numbers or function in autoimmune diseases. His primary objective has been to utilize our increasing understanding of the immune system to develop a therapy that is more effective, yet safer than the agents now used to treat chronic immune-mediated diseases. These include SLE and other autoimmune diseases, graft versus host disease, and organ graft rejection.

Dr. Horwitz’s approach to treat autoimmune disease has been to repair defects in Tregs. At first this was achieved by generating these cells from blood cells with IL-2 and TGF-β outside the body. Now with Dr. Tarek Fahmy at Yale a more practical approach has been to generate Tregs with nanoparticles loaded with IL-2 and TGF-β that target specific precursor cells in the subject’s own lymphoid organs. The high concentrations of these growth factors in the local environment reduce the total amount delivered to 100 to 1000 times less than the amount injected systemically. This local delivery increases effectiveness markedly reduces adverse side effects and reduces in the cost of therapy.

Most recently Dr. Horwitz has developed two novel nanoproducts that induce multiple populations of therapeutic immune cells. Moreover, these nanoproducts induce their target cells to produce the TGF-β needed so that the nanoparticles are loaded with IL-2 only. Thus, these new products reduce the possibility of adverse side effects even further. These products enable Treg precursor cells receive the optimal amounts of IL-2 and TGF-β needed to correct their defective function efficiently and safely.

Tarek Fahmy is an internationally recognized leader in nanoimmunology biotech. He started his professional career as a research engineer with DuPont in 1992 but quickly realized his love for biomedical applications. The Fahmy laboratory at Yale focuses on the development and validation of biomaterials for the intervention and modulation of immune system function. The lab has produced over 20 patents spanning different methods of compositions, utility, and application of engineered materials in immune system recognition and regulation. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University.

Previously, Drs. Horwitz and Professor Fahmy recruited Gerald Rea, a science-oriented visionary financier from Indiana to start Toralgen, a company to develop an oral bile acid nanoparticle platform conceived by Professor Fahmy. Toralgen is concentrating on using this platform for the treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. General Nano was spun off to develop non-diabetes disease indications. At the present time, the bile acid nanoparticles cannot be targeted to specific immune cells.