Our company was formed in 2020 by the prominent Yale University professors and scientists, Drs. Anna Marie Pyle and Akiko Iwasaki. Pyle, PhD, and colleagues co-discovered RIG-I, an innate immune sensor, and a new class of oligonucleotide compounds called stem loop RNA therapeutics or “SLRs” for the selective targeting of RIG-I. SLRs stimulate the innate and adaptive immune responses by activation of the Type I interferon pathway. Co-founder Iwasaki, PhD, is renowned for her work with mechanisms of immune defense against viruses at the mucosal surfaces. RIGImmune executed an exclusive license agreement with Yale University in 2022 for the intellectual property estate related to the SLRs developed by Pyle and Iwasaki.
To discover and develop a technology platform that could effectively deliver RNA therapeutics directly to the respiratory tract without the need for lipid nanoparticle encapsulation, RIGImmune acquired SubIntro, a UK biotechnology company, in 2022. Subintro, Inc., co-founded by three notable respiratory drug developers, Kaz Ito, PhD, DVM, Garth Rapeport, MD, and Jag Shur, PhD, was focused on the advancement of novel formulations for the local mucosal and inhalation delivery of modalities for use against serious respiratory diseases. The combination of RIGImmune and SubIntro has led to an innovative non-LNP technology platform named NEED™ (Nano-Emulsion Enhanced Delivery) that directly and effectively delivers RNA therapeutics to the respiratory tract.
