Can B cells break the bound­aries of cell ther­a­py? Long­wood start­up has $52M to prove a new en­gi­neer­ing tech

Back in De­cem­ber 2017, as the cell ther­a­py world was still bask­ing in the vir­tu­al­ly back-to-back ap­provals of two pi­o­neer­ing CAR-Ts, re­searchers at Seat­tle Chil­dren’s Re­search In­sti­tute re­port­ed a sci­en­tif­ic first in a dif­fer­ent cor­ner of the field: en­gi­neer B cells to treat dis­ease.

The team, led by David Rawl­ings and Richard James, even­tu­al­ly worked with Long­wood Fund to start a biotech around those find­ings. And now At­las Ven­ture and RA Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment are com­ing on board to lead a $52 mil­lion launch round, joined by Al­ta Part­ners, for Be Bio­phar­ma.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER