Start-Up Previews, November 2014

Cancer immunotherapy technologies based on T cells, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, direct the immune system to attack malignant cells. ImmuneXcite Inc. is developing a novel cancer immunotherapy platform technology that entices another more abundant immune cell type, neutrophils, to engulf and destroy malignant cells as well as activate T cells, an approach that could also prove useful in combination with T-cell-based immunotherapeutic approaches.

UK-based start-up Inivata Ltd. is using cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), found in the bloodstream, to create a “liquid...