SQZ Biotech slash­es head­count by 60% as founder/CEO hits ex­it — while Syn­log­ic lays off 25%

It’s a tough time for ear­ly-stage com­pa­nies de­vel­op­ing high­ly promis­ing, but large­ly un­proven, new tech­nolo­gies.

Just ask SQZ Biotech­nolo­gies and Syn­log­ic. The for­mer is bid­ding farewell to its founder and CEO and slash­ing the head­count by 60% as it piv­ots from its orig­i­nal cell ther­a­py plat­form to a next-gen ap­proach; the lat­ter — a syn­thet­ic bi­ol­o­gy play found­ed by MIT’s Jim Collins and Tim Lu — is sim­i­lar­ly “op­ti­miz­ing” the com­pa­ny to fo­cus on lead pro­grams. The re­sult­ing re­align­ment means 25% of the staffers will be laid off.

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