Patrick Hruby
Cancer thinks it’s sooooo smart, evading your immune system, tricking B cells and T cells into assuming it should be there. These startups all use immunothera pies to help your body sniff out cancer and squash it dead.
One treatment from this firm improves the effectiveness of dendritic cells, which detect foreign substances like tumors. That approach might succeed when chemo- therapy fails. Raised up to $49 million in Series C round, October 2013
Working with top research institutes—and Jeff Bezos— Juno focuses on strengthen- ing T cells: Draw blood, genetically tweak the cells for better tumor recogni- tion, reinject them into the body. More than $145 mil lion, Series A, January 2014
This biotech company develops strong antibodies to defeat the Big C. Sample product: NI-1701, which blocks the protein CD47 found on tumor cells, jamming their “don’t eat me” signal to the body’s cleanup crew. $66 million, Series B, February 2014
