David Fontana, PhD

Umoja Biopharma is creating curative treatments for solid tumors and blood cancers by reprogramming a patient’s immune system in vivo. The vision is to deliver therapeutics to any patient, with any tumor, at any time. Umoja raised a $210M Series B in 2021, soon after raising a $53M Series A in 2020.

Since 2006, Dr. Fontana has worked for regional life science firms ZymoGenetics, BMS, Seattle Genetics, Juno Therapeutics, Celgene, and now Umoja, and has contributed to the development of several drugs including Breyanzi (JUNO/Celgene/BMS), ADCETRIS (Seagen), and LAG3 (BMS). Founded in 2019 based on pioneering work performed at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Purdue University, Umoja’s novel approach is powered by integrated cellular immunotherapy technologies including the VivoVec™ off-the-shelf in vivo delivery platform, iCIL off-the-shelf cell therapy platform, the RACR™/CAR in vivo cell expansion/control platform, and the TumorTag™ targeting platform.