#ASCO21: SQZ offers first clinical glimpse of unorthodox cell therapy manufacturing tech — but checkpoint combo is still the way to go
More than seven years after Armon Sharei, then a PhD student at Bob Langer’s lab, first published a way to reengineer cells without vectors, the biotech they founded together has the first human data in its hands.
SQZ Biotech — which gets its name from the cell-squeezing device they created to open up a temporary window for delivery of cargoes into cells — has two take-home messages for the virtual ASCO crowd: Its HPV-targeted cell therapy looks safe among 12 patients with HPV-positive solid tumors, and could be manufactured reliably within 24 hours.
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