The University of Pennsylvania joined a $53 million funding round closed by University City’s Carisma Therapeutics, as part of a larger push to grow the local biotech sector.

Penn declined to disclose how much it contributed to the company’s Series A round — led by AbbVie Ventures and HealthCap — but Penn Center for Innovation told Technical.ly the figure was in the “several million dollar” range.

The investment in Carisma Therapeutics — formerly CARMA Therapeutics, which is working on a cellular therapy aimed at fighting solid tumors — is part of an effort launched by Penn to deploy $50 million in 10 biotech companies from the Penn ecosystem over the next three years.

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