![Cytonus Therapeutics, a small biotech company north of San Diego, raised $11.7 million in Series A financing to engineer cells as delivery vessels for genetic medicines, including mRNA therapies and oncolytic viruses for cancer, Endpoints News has learned.](https://startuprise.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Cytonus.webp)
Cytonus Therapeutics, a small biotech company north of San Diego, raised $11.7 million in Series A financing to engineer cells as delivery vessels for genetic medicines, including mRNA therapies and oncolytic viruses for cancer, Endpoints News has learned.
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The unconventional approach flips the script on cell therapy. Rather than using the cell as a medicine itself, a partially-gutted cell transports a drug to a specified address in the body, thanks to molecular homing beacons appended to its surface.
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āIn many ways, it behaves like a biological drone. Itās an entirely new category of drug delivery,ā Cytonus co-founder and CEO Remo Moomiaie-Qajar said in an exclusive interview. āWe are not a cell therapy company.ā
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āOther approaches like nanoparticles, exosomes, even red blood cells, are all passive ways to deliver a product. They circulate in the bloodstream and are very inefficient at getting out and penetrating deep into tissues,ā Moomiaie-Qajar said. āThe Cargocyte is different. Itās an active transporter, better at homing and migration than anything else.ā
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About Cytonus Therapeutics
Cytonus Therapeutics is a San Diego-based biotech company that has developed a vast platform of proprietary immunotherapeutic products to treat a wide range of medical conditions including cancers, infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases, and cognitive disorders, and to improve patient outcomes. Its proprietary Cargocyteā¢ technologies are next-generation biomolecular delivery devices which have numerous medical applications across unmet therapeutic areas.
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