Building noise-cancelling headphones for cell therapies @KiraGenBio starting with glioblastoma @HarvardHBS • @BeamTx • @BluebirdBio
Boston, MA
Joined March 2009
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This is why we built @KiraGenBio.
Base editing made CAR-T possible for patients like Alyssa, CURED of T-cell leukemia after every other option failed. We built the U.S. version at @BeamTx.
Help us make more stories like Alyssa’s for patients with GBM and other solid tumors!
After leukemia treatments failed, Alyssa Tapley, at age 13, was told she would die. Then, doctors tried an experimental gene-edited therapy. She became the first human to try the treatment made possible by U.S. federal funding. Now 16, she’s cancer-free and planning her future. cbsn.ws/4ou0OMt
Wink wink nudge nudge, the wealthiest are already going to China for their treatments 👀
On biotech and US-China competition, there will be a humbling moment in the US when the wealthiest people quietly start going to China for cutting-edge treatments. When the Saudi Floor at MGH moves to Shanghai. "They can cure this disease and we can't" impresses people in a way that GDP stats don't. Maybe then there will finally be some introspection here about exactly what we're getting wrong at the regulatory level.
Exactly. Better instrumentation is essential, but so is making sense of the complexity it reveals.
We’re building KiraLOGIC to interpret how multiplex edits interact to resist suppression & prioritize the best combos for scarce patient-derived models.
Great piece, @amplesa!
Aaron Edwards retweeted
At @OpenAI we are hiring a Life Sciences Partnerships Lead to shape and execute OpenAI’s global life sciences partnership strategy. You will lead high-impact research, product, and platform partnerships across the life sciences ecosystem. Learn more and apply at
openai.com/careers/business-…
Aaron Edwards retweeted
Bivalent CAR T-Cell Therapy Shows No Delayed Toxicity and Promising Survival in Recurrent Glioblastoma
ascopost.com/issues/october-…
Aaron Edwards retweeted
Pharma has already acquired all 27,000 Chinese ADCs against the same 3 targets so not sure there's anything left.
Pharma is bracing for tougher Treasury scrutiny of China deals, with draft outbound investment rules expected Thursday.
endpoints.news/treasury-expe…
F brain cancer.
This is why we fight.
Ann Hornaday, the longtime film critic at The Washington Post, died Sunday at her home in Baltimore following a battle with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. She was 66.
variety.com/2026/film/people…
Aaron Edwards retweeted
We’ve just made public 125,091 DICOM radiology images from across my cancer journey (link below). The data is both longitudinal and multi-modal, dated and linked to my treatment timeline, so you can compare imaging across initial diagnosis, standard of care, first remission, “founder mode cancer care”, and second remission. It’s viewable in OHIF, the standard open-source viewer used in radiology research.
Given the long history of applying deep learning to radiology, we’re hoping to see a variety of methods and models applied to my data. If you find something interesting, please reach out to [email protected], or if you know a researcher who should see this, tag them below.
Thanks to Terra LaFerriere for organizing these images, and Kamil Slowikowski for building osteosarc.com into the resource it is.
Aaron Edwards retweeted
📣 Our Copayment Assistance Program is OPEN again to new and renewal patients!
The Musella Foundation helps eligible brain tumor patients with copayments for covered treatments. If you need financial assistance, please visit our website for eligibility requirements and instructions for new and renewal applications.
Learn more and apply: braintumorcopays.org
Funding is limited, so please apply promptly.
Please share this with patients, caregivers, social workers, and treatment teams. You could help a family find the assistance they need!
#BrainTumor #BrainCancer #PatientSupport #MusellaFoundation
Couldn’t agree more, Bob. CAR-T durability in CNS tumors is exactly what we’re working on at @KiraGenBio. Hit us up.
I'm telling ya, ex vivo CAR-T is NOT dead. It's BLAZING through CNS malignancies and I'm confident will start making dents in more solid tumors.
Paul Stoffels is not giving up on the cell therapy plans he had at Galapagos
the former J&J CSO has started a new biotech called Armed Cell Therapeutics to buy the preclinical CAR-T platform from the Belgian biotech he had tried turning around
@endpts
endpoints.news/paul-stoffels…
Ngl, mad proud to have the first person to ever turn down the Thiel Fellowship building with us @KiraGenBio. @the_tessallator is a badass helping us F cancer.
F Cancer.
We must accelerate innovation into the clinic to give patients like Ben more options to live.
Ben Wilson (@BenWilsonTweets) has stage 4 cancer and 4 kids under the age of 5.
I want to help him as much as possible, so I invited him on the podcast to talk about his work studying history’s greatest leaders and what it’s like getting told he’s going to die at 38.
He’s a good guy, a close friend, and one of my favorite podcasters.
His work has benefited millions of people all across the world.
Please watch this episode and see if you can help with medicine, introductions, or donations.
0:00 What Ben has learned from making How to Take Over the World and studying history’s greatest leaders.
55:51 Living like you're dying. Ben on facing cancer.
Aaron Edwards retweeted
In vivo CAR-T can solve the delivery problem – but solid tumours demand more
pharmaphorum.com/oncology/vi…
One of the most exciting moments of building @KiraGenBio : our first CAR-T activity data are coming back directly from GBM patient tissue 😍
Patient-derived studies are underway in parallel.
Early days, but this is exactly the biology we started KiraGen to tackle. More soon.
Aaron Edwards retweeted
It’s apparently a quiet day on here so:
1. We need to match patients to therapies based on their molecular profile (DNA, RNA, protein)
2. We need investment in AI for clinical translation, aka figuring out which patients will respond to which drugs
3. We need more drug approvals based on molecular profile instead of tumor type. Right now, rare cancers are left behind
Aaron Edwards retweeted
"The investment is just not matched to the scale of that challenge."
Professor Ruman Rahman, Director of the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the @UniofNottingham appeared on @BBCBreakfast this morning to discuss the urgent need for greater investment for research into brain tumours.
His interview comes as we release new analysis revealing that 74% of funding for brain tumour research in the UK comes from charities, compared to just 26% from Government.
The interview followed a powerful segment featuring Huw McCandless, including footage of him undergoing awake brain surgery last month. Huw's story is a stark reminder of why sustained investment in research is so important.
We urgently need to accelerate progress, develop new treatments and improve outcomes for everyone affected by brain tumours.
#BrainTumourResearch #TogetherWeWillFindACure
One target. One off-the-shelf CAR-T. Two FDA-cleared U.S. Phase 2 trials.
T-MAXIMUM’s allogeneic MT027 has leapfrogged many autologous CNS CAR-T programs in clinical development.
We saw this opportunity two years ago. Allo is finding its place in solid tumors :)
🦉 CAR-T moves deeper into the brain.
FDA has cleared T-MAXIMUM's B7-H3-targeted allogeneic CAR-T, MT027, for a Phase 2 trial in brain metastases from lung and breast cancer.
The approach combines off-the-shelf CAR-T cells with direct intracranial delivery, potentially bypassing a major obstacle for systemic cell therapies: reaching tumors inside the brain.
Early company-reported data showed 2 partial responses among 3 evaluable lung cancer patients, but efficacy remains unproven.
#immunotherapy #CAR_T
prnewswire.com/news-releases…
The first IL-18 CAR-T trial in solid tumors.
IL-18 aims to rally endogenous immunity. Yet a progressing tumor had fewer lymphocytes, more suppressive macrophages.
4/11 neuroblastoma responses; both CRs relapsed. Fatal hyperinflammation at higher dose.
doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-110…
