Squeezing cells to cure diseases
Cell-based immunotherapies, which often involve engineering cells to activate or suppress the immune system, have delivered some dramatic results to cancer patients with few other options. But the complex process of developing these therapies has limited a field that many believe could be a powerful new frontier in medicine. Using a proprietary platform and an unconventional approach, startup SQZ Biotech is trying to expand immunotherapy’s impact by simplifying the process of engineering immune cells, thus unlocking a slew of new applications for the technology. SQZ co-founder and CEO Armon Sharei SM ’13 PhD ’13 says his company leverages a simple process — squeezing cells so they can be penetrated by specific molecules — to engineer a broader suite of cell functions than has been possible with the gene therapy approaches that have attracted the bulk of the investments in the field. In the middle of next year, backed by over $100 million in...