Rochester biotech firm treating dogs with cancer lands $970,000 research grant

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Oct. 4—ROCHESTER — LEAH Labs,

a Rochester biotech firm working on gene therapies to treat dogs now — and maybe humans later — recently landed more than $900,000 in federal funding.

LEAH Labs,

led by CEO and co-founder Dr. Wes Wierson, has been awarded a $973,924 Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation.

"LEAH Labs is an astounding biotech firm with the technical know-how to conduct high-risk, high-reward research that will discover novel cancer treatments," stated MNSBIR, Inc. President Pat Dillon about the grant. "The NSF is a highly competitive agency that funds groundbreaking technologies with strong commercial potential. LEAH Labs is now part of an elite group of startups and small businesses funded by NSF SBIR Phase II. The long-term economic impact of their technology will drive continued growth in Minnesota's bioeconomy."

MNSBIR is a Minnesota-based science and technology nonprofit that has worked with LEAH Labs since Wierson co-founded the firm with Dr. Stephen Ekker. Ekker, previously the dean of the

Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences,

recently left Mayo Clinic to go work for the University of Texas, Austin.

LEAH Labs uses gene editing techniques developed by Wierson at Iowa State University with Mayo Clinic support. LEAH Labs licensed the research from Mayo Clinic. LEAH Labs is based in Minnesota BioBusiness Center in downtown Rochester.

The start-up's initial product is a CAR-T cell therapy for dogs with cancer. The goal is to create a treatment for B cell lymphoma cancer in dogs. That type of cancer is comparable to Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans and kills an estimated 300,000 dogs every year.

The two-year grant will be used to finance further development of LEAH Labs' proprietary, virus-free gene editing technology called GeneWeld. It will also fund a pilot trial of its lead CAR-T cell therapy asset in pet dogs with B cell lymphoma.

"This SBIR funding gives LEAH Labs the opportunity to continue building our world-class virus-free gene editing technology, while getting a lead candidate CAR-T cell therapy into pet patients who desperately need new and innovative solutions," stated Wierson in the announcement of the grant.

Because dogs live in the same environment, eat the same foods, and share genetics and physiology with humans, therapeutic strategies that work in dogs often work in humans, and vice versa, That is called the "One Health Model." LEAH Labs' is working to develop novel therapies for pets with analogous cancers in humans, and eventually translate treatments from veterinary medicine to human medicine.

In its early stages, LEAH Labs was financed through crowdsourcing. In March 2022,

it was awarded a $337,443 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant

from the National Institute of Health.