The field of biotechnology, or more commonly known as “biotech”, implements the use of living organisms to develop applications intended for improving human welfare. Medical biotech companies pursue or license in scientific discoveries to produce tangible benefits for healthcare such as therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines. In some cases, these companies emerged from a novel technology with the potential to improve human health, inspired by a discovery that has been “spun off” from an academic lab
Laboratory trainees, like us, stand at the start of many of these breakthroughs by coming across findings that show great potential. This is the start, but it is not simple to commercialize a technology. There are numerous steps with complex legal jargon to follow once the process is started. Here, we will highlight some major components in this process: First, it’s important to determine whether commercialization is viable. The next steps that follow include building a founding team, negotiating with the technology transfer office, obtaining rights for intellectual property (IP), hiring advisors and employees, and acquiring funding. Luckily, many universities strongly support commercialization of scientific technologies with established programs to aid startups.
At the University of Toronto (UofT), we have an entrepreneurship community which consists of 12 innovation hubs called Accelerators, geared towards providing support, resources, and partnerships in various fields. University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology is an accelerator that focuses highly on partnership and funding, with ties to the surrounding hospitals, MaRS Discovery District, and Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP). At the University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus (UTM), SpinUp, termed a “wet lab incubator”, provides early-stage resources, such as subsidized lab and office space, to allow startups to focus on developing the IP. These programs are designed for building up entrepreneurship and bridging the translation gap from research to technology.
When comparing these spin-off companies to the overall biotech sector, we can look at a few metrics. Approximately one-third of biotechnology firms originated as spin-offs, with the majority originating from academic research institutions. Spin-offs are typically smaller and have a greater focus on research and development compared to well-established biotechnology firms. While most spin-offs do not grow into large, public companies, the bulk of them have high survival rates at 5 years, and some even longer.
Our very own Immunology department is home to labs that founded a major spin-off biotech, Radiant Biotherapeutics. The research conducted in the labs of Dr. Jean-Phillipe Julien and Dr. Bebhinn Treanor resulted in a patentable technology called Multabody. Multabody is an antibody platform with the “mult” in the name referring to its multi-valent and multi-specific properties. The basis behind this innovation utilizes apoferritin, a human scaffold protein that can self-multimerize, which when combined with antibody fragments can assemble into a multimeric structure. The technology is modular meaning that the antibody fragments can be swapped out depending on the target. Because of this, Multabody has a wide range of potential therapeutic targets. Radiant Biotherapeutics’ current pipeline includes targets in oncology, inflammation, and HIV. In their oncology portfolio, their lead clinical candidate is RBT-101, a 4-1BB agonist. Recently presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 2025, it was highlighted that RBT-101 could induce tumour regression without liver toxicity in a mouse tumour model. From this, Radiant Biotherapeutics will continue to develop their lead oncology program, as well as other Multabody platforms for therapeutics in disease.
UofT is not the only place where academic research fuels industry. Triumvira Immunologics is a biotechnology company founded in 2015 by Dr. Jonathan Bramson at McMaster University. Their major focus is cancer therapeutics, with their main proprietary technology being the T cell Antigen Coupler (TAC) molecule. The TAC molecule is a chimeric molecule with 3 domains: the antigen binding domain which binds to the tumor cells, the CD3 binding domain that interacts with the T cell receptor (TCR), and the CD4 Co-Receptor Domain, which is the proprietary component of the Triumvera technology. The CD4 Co-Receptor Domain is what anchors the TAC molecule into the cell membrane and is responsible for activating the immune response. The company’s leading clinical candidate is TAC101-CLDN18.2, an autologous TAC program that uses a patient’s T cells genetically engineered with a TAC molecule to redirect T cells to target tumors expressing Claudin 18.2, a protein on solid tumors. Preliminary results from a phase I/II study were presented at 2025 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium and Triumvira is continuing to develop this candidate as well as others to diversify the applicability of the technology in cancer treatment.
A few other companies that have “spun-out” include Notch Therapeutics, a company using stem cell-based technology to develop cell therapies in cancer application, founded by Dr. Juan-Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker and Dr. Peter Zandstra, also formerly from UofT. Dr. Nathan Magarvery founded Adapsyn out of McMaster University to leverage bioinformatics to discover novel molecules with potential for benefits in various therapeutic areas, agriculture, and nutrition. Perturba Therapeutics was founded by combining the discoveries from Dr. Igor Stagljar’s lab at UofT with AI-augmented chemistry technology from a biotech company called Cyclica. Finally, within the past year Lunar Therapeutics was founded out of University of British Columbia, focused on cell therapies.
Overall, “spin-off” biotechnology companies are a small portion of the biotech world, but they represent the vast potential of academic research in scientific progress. The process to commercialize a discovery is a long process but has the potential to produce great benefits in healthcare. Ultimately, Canadian academic research labs spinning out into biotechnology companies are essential in bridging discovery to translational applications.
References
- Biotech company founded by U of T researchers secures US$85 million in financing | University of Toronto. https://www.utoronto.ca/news/biotech-company-founded-u-t-researchers-secures-us85-million-financing
- Cyclica Spins Out Startup, Perturba Therapeutics, From University Of Toronto. https://www.obio.ca/obio-backup/obio1/2022/3/cyclica-spins-out-startup-perturba-therapeutics-from-university-of-toronto
- Explaining Rapid Growth in Canadian Biotechnology Firms. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/88f0017m/88f0017m2000008-eng.pdf
- ulme, J. et al. Abstract 2889: Multabodies: A next-generation approach for cancer immunotherapy and 4-1BB agonist therapy. Cancer Res. 85, 2889 (2025).
- Triumvira Immunologics | Engineered T Cell Therapies. https://triumvira.com/
- Home | Adapsyn Bioscience. https://www.adapsyn.com
- How to Spin Out of Academia & Into a Startup in 2024. https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-spin-out-of-academia-and-into-a-startup
- McMaster start-up developing new cancer treatments. https://news.mcmaster.ca/triumvira-cancer-immunotherapy/
- Meet the 15 New UBC Spin-offs in 2024/2025 – News | UBC Applied Science. https://apsc.ubc.ca/news/2025/meet-15-new-ubc-spin-offs-in-20242025
- Radiant Biotherapeutics. https://radiantbio.com/
- Radiant Biotherapeutics Secures $35 Million to Advance Multabody™ Therapeutics. https://ipc.sickkids.ca/radiant-biotherapeutics-secures-35-million-to-advance-multabody-therapeutics/
- Spinout Playbook. https://www.fiftyyears.com/spinout
- Surviving Spin-offs as a Measure of Research Funding Effectiveness. https://summit.sfu.ca/item/13439
- The IPL newsletter: Volume 6, Issue 105 | The Munk School. https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ipl/ipl-newsletter-volume-6-issue-105
- University of Toronto Entrepreneurship – Accelerators. https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/for-entrepreneurs/accelerators/
- University of Toronto Early Stage Technology (UTEST). https://utest.to
- UT SpinUp Lab – University of Toronto’s first wet lab incubator. https://spinup.utm.utoronto.ca/
- What is Biotechnology? | BIO. https://www.bio.org/what-biotechnology
Alina Mehra