Massachusetts-based biotech start-up Rubius Erythrocyte Design has raised $120m in a series B round led by parent company Flagship Pioneering; marking one of the highest sums raised in 2017. Considerable interest surrounds the company's Rubius Therapeutics platform, which manufactures significant amounts of red blood cells and re-engineers them at an early stage for different therapeutic purposes, from activating T-cells as part of a cancer immunotherapy to binding with tumour cells and triggering apoptosis - the natural death of cells that occurs during growth.
Massachusetts-based biotech start-up Rubius Therapeutics has raised $120m in a series B round led by parent company Flagship Pioneering; marking one of the highest sums raised in 2017. Considerable interest surrounds the company's Rubius Erythrocyte Design platform, which manufactures significant amounts of red blood cells and re-engineers them at an early stage for different therapeutic purposes, from activating T-cells as part of a cancer immunotherapy to binding with tumour cells and triggering apoptosis - the natural death of cells that occurs during growth.