Nanjing University Professor-Founded Cell Therapy Innovator Yuanmai Cell Completes Pre-A Financing Round

Recently, Nanjing Macera Therapeutics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Macera Therapeutics” or the “Company”) completed its Pre-A round of financing, which was jointly funded by the Taizhou Angel Investment Fund and Nanjing Chuangyi Dingxin Venture Capital Partnership.

It is reported that the company's registered address is located in SouthJiangbei New Area, Nanjing City, co-founded by Professor Shen Pingping’s research team from Nanjing University and senior pharmaceutical executives,Focus on the Treatment of Metabolic Immune and Autoimmune Diseases, to address current unmet clinical needs. Currently, Macera Therapeutics has established four core technology platforms with independent intellectual property rights, including a high-throughput screening system for anti-fibrotic payloads, a CAR functional module library, an in vitro gene editing system, and an in vivo gene editing delivery system. Notably, through its in vivo gene editing delivery technology, the company is advancing the engineering of macrophages from traditional ex vivo transfection toward in situ editing.

Professor Shen Pingping, the company’s scientific founder, is a recipient of the Ministry of Education’s “Program for Supporting New Century Excellent Talents,” a Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, and serves as Principal Investigator (PI) at the Gulou Hospital Research Center of the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. Under her leadership, the team has long been dedicated to in-depth research on macrophage immune regulation and related immunotherapy technologies, achieving numerous original breakthroughs.

In terms of its technological roadmap, Macera Therapeutics focuses on CAR-M (chimeric antigen receptor macrophage) therapy. Unlike traditional CAR-T therapy, macrophages are naturally abundant in the tumor microenvironment, enabling them to penetrate the solid tumor barrier and directly phagocytose tumor cells. As early as 2020, when a team from the University of Pennsylvania reported on CAR-M therapy in Nature Biotechnology, Shen Pingping’s team independently proposed the novel concept of macrophage-based immunotherapy at nearly the same time. Consequently, the journal featured a special commentary recognizing them as one of the leading teams in the international CAR-M technology field.

In 2025, Macera Therapeutics achieved significant progress in clinical translation. Its independently developed MACF-001 project successfully completed the enrollment, treatment, and safety follow-up of the first patient at the Liver Disease Center of the Eastern Theater General Hospital. Clinical results showed that no obvious adverse reactions occurred in patients after infusion of this cell therapy drug. Various indicators, including liver function and inflammatory factors, remained within normal levels, and some cirrhosis-related indicators were significantly improved.

Notably, since its establishment in September 2022, Macera Therapeutics has successively secured financial support from multiple institutions, including CDH Investments, Renai Group, and Nanjing Innovation Investment Group. Prior to this financing round, two angel funds under the Jiangsu Provincial Strategic Emerging Industry Fund Cluster also made their inaugural investments in Macera Therapeutics, fully demonstrating the capital market’s recognition of its technological approach.

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