Harvard University has completed a license agreement with Magenta Therapeutics, a startup company recently launched in Cambridge, for a portfolio of technologies with the potential to transform blood stem cell transplants from a “treatment of last resort” into a safer, more efficient therapy for patients with blood diseases and immune disorders.
To date, even at the cutting edge of hematopoietic (blood) stem cell transplantation, the severe side effects and mortality risk involved in conditioning — preparing patients for the procedure — have been major obstacles to expanding access to this life-saving treatment. Recent scientific advances in conditioning and new methods for harvesting and propagating donor stem cells could offer a new approach.
