Richard DiVenuto is a New York-based entrepreneur who has worked in California, Florida, and Boston, Massachusetts. As an advisor to a biotechnology firm, Richard DiVenuto helped raise $270 million in the company's round A and B funding. The company is developing allogeneic cell therapies such as engineered T cells called CAR T-cell therapy.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is used to change immune system cells called T-cells, a kind of white blood cell, in the lab so that they can identify and kill cancerous tissue. Essentially, the antigen receptor component gives the white blood cells the information they need to pick out the antigens specific to the cancer cells. Since the process includes changing the genes within T-cells, CAR T-cell therapy is often referred to as a type of cell-based gene therapy.
First, plasma containing T-cells is extracted from the patient's blood. The T-cells are isolated, sent to the lab, and changed by adding the protein of the particular CAR onto the cell’s surface, thus changing them into CAR T-cells. The modified cells grow and multiply within the laboratory conditions; it can take weeks to produce the number of CAR T-cells required for treatment. Once there are enough, the cells are infused back into the patient’s bloodstream where the receptors can now help the immune system recognize and attack cancerous cells as they float through the body.
