Graphite founder takes drug to recently-launched Kamau Therapeutics for a second chance: #ASH23

SAN DIEGO — Af­ter Graphite Bio’s im­plo­sion, Matthew Por­teus wants to do things dif­fer­ent­ly.

The Stan­ford re­searcher’s stint at the biotech end­ed with Graphite sell­ing it­self in a re­verse merg­er. The start­up fell apart af­ter the first pa­tient in its lead pro­gram, a gene edit­ing sick­le cell ther­a­py called nu­la-cel, de­vel­oped a se­ri­ous side ef­fect and the com­pa­ny shelved the drug.

Now, nu­la-cel is get­ting an­oth­er chance at Por­teus’ new com­pa­ny, Ka­mau Ther­a­peu­tics, which is pre­sent­ing ex­tend­ed fol­low-up da­ta on that pa­tient at this year’s Amer­i­can So­ci­ety of Hema­tol­ogy meet­ing. Ka­mau emerged from stealth last week, and Por­teus, who is act­ing CEO un­til a full-time leader is hired, says he’s learned from Graphite’s mis­takes.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.