The SDSU Treadmill
Partnership between startup and researchers advances careers and cancer care
By Sarah White
As a graduate student, Matt Giacalone had mentors and opportunities to bridge research in academia and industry. Twenty years later, as CEO of Vaxiion, he is opening doors for more SDSU biologists while advancing cancer care.
Giacalone worked on using minicells — miniature bacteria without chromosomes that can be loaded with proteins or small molecules — to deliver vaccines or drugs, advised by biology professors emerita Roger Sabbadini and Kathleen McGuire. Sabbadini patented this technology and started Vaxiion as a spin-off company outside of the university.
When vaccine development and delivery proved to be too risky to take on as a small company pre-pandemic, Vaxiion pivoted to using minicells to deliver drugs directly to cancerous tumors.
While the company pivoted, Giacalone pursued additional training in entrepreneurship and earned his M.B.A. and doctorate in biology through joint SDSU/UC San Diego programs. Believing in and championing Vaxiion’s technology led him to becoming the company’s CEO, although his true passion lies in pursuing questions about humans’ immune response.
He keeps his feet firmly planted in both business and research by continuing to partner with McGuire, SDSU biologist Carrie House and their students in what Giacalone calls the “SDSU treadmill model.” His company provides funding for an SDSU alumnus to pursue their master’s or doctoral degree while encouraging them to find and mentor the next student to continue the work.
For the past few years, their joint research has been focused on what happens in the immune system when minicells are used to treat cancerous tumors.
“Once Vaxiion decided they wanted to know more about the biology and the immunology of their product, they’ve been very committed,” McGuire said.
McGuire added that part of the reason that the partnership between her lab and Vaxiion has been so successful and long-lasting is because Vaxiion’s team is very proud of being part of SDSU.
One of the students who has benefitted from this treadmill is Kinsey Nelson (‘19, ‘23). As an undergraduate student at SDSU, Nelson had a strong interest in science and medicine, but she did not find herself gravitating toward patient care. In her senior year, she decided to try out research by joining McGuire’s lab.
Working closely with Katie Reil (‘13, ‘20), Nelson learned about Vaxiion and joined the company as a research associate after graduation. Two years later, she had the opportunity to earn her master’s degree while continuing to work full-time at Vaxiion, finishing her degree last summer.
“It’s been really cool to see research from multiple points of view,” Nelson said. “And to experience research in academia and industry at the same time.”
Following in Nelson’s footsteps, undergraduate biology student Amanda Parikh (‘23) presented results at the 2023 SDSU Student Symposium. She successfully turned off specific immune response genes in cell models, setting the stage for further testing the genes’ role in treating tumors. After Parikh graduated, she joined Vaxiion full-time.
Collectively, their experiments have been integral in explaining how Vaxiion techniques deliver drugs to tumors and activate the body’s immune system. The team of industry and academic scientists has recently published two papers in high-profile immunology journals. The company’s pharmaceuticals have since completed a Phase 1 FDA trial in bladder cancer and recently opened another trial for the treatment of advanced solid tumors.