Graphite Bio co-founder debuts Treg cell therapy startup with $75M, aims to ‘trick’ immune system into resetting

Tr1x launched from stealth Wednes­day with $75 mil­lion to tack­le graft-ver­sus-host dis­ease in ad­di­tion to in­flam­ma­to­ry and au­toim­mune con­di­tions.

The biotech was cre­at­ed by Maria Grazia Ron­car­o­lo, the Stan­ford Med­i­cine sci­en­tist who co-found­ed Graphite Bio and Ka­mau Ther­a­peu­tics. Bill Lis, who pre­vi­ous­ly led Jasper Ther­a­peu­tics and Por­to­la Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, is Tr1x’s CEO.

Ron­car­o­lo’s team was the first to dis­cov­er a type of im­mune cell called type 1 reg­u­la­to­ry T cells — or Tr1 cells — the name­sake of the com­pa­ny.

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