Juno co-founder launches ambitious new startup with Fred Hutch colleagues to treat cancer
A group of cancer research experts are teaming up to launch Affini-T Therapeutics, which aims to develop cancer treatments using T cell receptor (TCR) cancer immunotherapy. TCR involves engineering T cells to recognize and mount a destructive immune response
against tumor cells in patients, potentially targeting a wider range of tumor types than more conventional CAR T cell therapies.
Affini-T will be headquartered in Boston with a research lab located in Seattle. The company is headed by an elite team including CEO and co-founder Jak Knowles, formerly of Metagenomi, Fred Hutch’s head of immunology Philip Greenberg, Fred Hutch Research Associate Thomas Schmitt and Aude Chapuis, Associate Professor at Fred Hutch.