We believe that today we have the technology to make any drug more effective, predictable, and safer than ever before.

Currently, drugs are developed with advanced knowledge about drug-disease interactions to the molecular level. Newer categories called precision medicines are often associated with receptor-ligand “lock and key” mechanisms of action. Despite advances in science and technology, all drugs including precision medicine solutions are administered in the same way as they were 70-plus years ago, yet they have a > 90% failure rate during development.

At Cytonus, we challenge the status quo because we find this failure rate to be unacceptable. We believe precision medicine solutions are only as good as how they’re administered, and all future drug candidates that don’t account for the complexities of the human body won’t move the needle towards better outcomes.

To make next-generation drugs, a pragmatic shift is needed to make drug candidates that are both functional (efficacious) and safe simultaneously.

Layer
Layer
Layer
What we’re doing:

Revolutionary cell therapy delivery
for safer, more effective treatments

Image

Cytonus (pronounced “sigh-TOE-nuss”) comes from the terms “cyto” (cell) and “onus” (burden of responsibility). The name is appropriate, because our goal is for a pre-programmed cell called the Cargocyte™ to carry the demand for lifesaving medical treatments to benefit patients safely and effectively.

Most cell therapy approaches fail clinical trials due to very toxic side effects. Cytonus is responding by enabling technology to develop a best-in-class drug-delivery platform called the Cargocyte. Modified prior to their release, Cargocytes deliver and produce targeted payloads (biologic drugs) as a cell therapy to specific problems in tissues and organs—including tumors and diseases. The unprecedented precision-delivery and localization of a biologic drug to specific tissues mitigates the systemic toxicity seen with all drugs.

Read more details of this process
Image module

The Cargocyte

The two main reasons why we’re unique from other biotech companies:

  1. Our precision delivery approach has Cargocytes act locally while being administered intravenously. Cargocytes home to and embed at the site of the disease. Once there, they manufacture therapeutic payloads (biologic drugs) at the site of the disease where they should be, rather than in parts of the body not needing treatment.
  2. A Cargocyte is a functioning cell without a nucleus. This enucleated cell improves safety (controllability) and enhances motility and migration to deliver disease-specific payloads within hours of intravenous administration. The cellular features also allow Cargocytes to produce a wide variety of biologic drugs at the target tissue for days.
Discover why Cytonus matters.

Why healthcare leaders support Cytonus:
Funding from 5 NIH grants and more!

At Cytonus, we value data above all, and this is reflected in our track record. We’re finding more want to join our effort to have an immediate impact on health through our vertical move in science. Our following recent successes include:

  • Five National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants within 18 months
  • One California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant
  • Publication of a peer-reviewed research paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering in December 2021. Read the article here.