SPARKS, MD--(Marketwired - October 01, 2015) - Commence Bio, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the development of MSC1 and MSC2 cellular immunotherapy platforms for cancer and inflammatory diseases, announced today that Thomas Isett, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, will present a corporate overview at the 2015 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa (SCMOM), to be held October 7-9 in La Jolla, CA. The presentation is scheduled for the Partnering Forum, October 7, at 3:00 PM (PDT), with a live video webcast available.

Dr. Aline M. Betancourt, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of Commence Bio, also attending the conference, said, "We're pleased to be accelerating work on our first MSC2-based clinical study for the treatment of acute optic neuritis. The Meeting on the Mesa provides a great opportunity to explore other developmental opportunities for our MSC2 platform, as well as for MSC1 immuno-oncology partnerships."

Co-hosted by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine [ARM], the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine [CIRM] and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, the 2015 SCMOM is expected to attract nearly 800 attendees. Participants include leading cell therapy, gene therapy and tissue engineering companies, large pharma and biotech, industry investors and major academic research institutions.

About Commence Bio

Commence Bio, Inc., (formerly WibiWorks Therapeutics) is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company founded on the vision that cancer and inflammatory diseases can be optimally treated by rebooting patients' immune systems with a new class of medicinal stem cells: MSC1& MSC2. Through the use of proprietary Stimulated Toll-like Receptor Technology [STaRT™], adult, allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells [MSC] are transformed into powerful immunomodulators that migrate to the sites of dysfunction and -- via a multi-pronged effect -- re-awaken appropriate immune responses. MSC1 & MSC2 have proven to be safe, potent, efficacious immunotherapies in pre-clinical models of disease, including ovarian cancer, demyelinating diseases (i.e. multiple sclerosis and Krabbe disease), acute lung injury/ARDS, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetic neuropathic pain. Commence Bio's lead candidate is CMB-200, an MSC2 therapy for acute optic neuritis, which is often the first sign of multiple sclerosis.

About STaRT™ -- Stimulated Toll-like Receptor Technology

STaRT is inspired by nature, in that it utilizes mimetics for the body's wound-healing signals to program mesenchymal stem cells [MSC] as either anti-tumor (MSC1) or anti-inflammatory (MSC2) phenotypes. Thus, beginning with the favorable safety profile of naïve MSCs and their appreciable anti-inflammatory properties, STaRT 32 involves stimulation of Toll-Like Receptor 3 [TLR3] within MSCs to create MSC2s - a uniform, more potent population of cells with enhanced immunomodulatory properties. Conversely, STaRT 41 involves stimulation of TLR4 to create MSC1s, a new cancer immunotherapy that safely re-awakens both innate and adaptive immune responses.