Biotech startup Rubius Therapeutics wants to create a superblood that can treat rare diseases and even cancer. The company has already received $ 220 million for its research.
Rubius Therapeutics wants to develop a targeted therapy against disease using red blood cells. According to startup director Torben Straight Nielsen, the new drug could be called “superblood,” as it will be based on red blood cells rather than chemicals or other synthetic materials.
Rubius plans to provide red blood cells with therapeutic proteins that can be modified to fight certain diseases. After this procedure, such blood is infused into the patient's body to initiate treatment. In general, superblood will account for less than one percent of the total blood volume in the human body.
The company wants to develop a superblood therapy that will replace missing enzymes in patients suffering from rare diseases, as well as treat cancer and autoimmune diseases like lupus and type 1 diabetes. However, such therapy may not be personalized. The company says it only needs one universal donor (blood type 1) from which it can get enough therapeutic doses for thousands of different patients.
Rubius received $ 120 million from investors in June 2017 and recently received another $ 100 million. Of course, the new drug will not be available soon. It needs to be developed first, then clinical trials done, but the company is clearly serious.
Nikolay Kudryavtsev
