Torpedo Bio, a Charleston-based biotechnology startup born from the research of MUSC Hollings Cancer Center scientist Leonardo M.R. Ferreira, Ph.D., earned one of the top awards at the first-ever Catalyst by Beemok Live Pitch Competition – securing $250,000 to advance a new approach to treating solid tumors.
Torpedo Bio’s technology centers on regulatory T cells, or Tregs, which are normally the immune system’s brakes. Tumors exploit those brakes to protect themselves. Ferreira’s lab discovered that, when engineered with high-affinity, cancer-targeting receptors, Tregs can be reprogrammed into powerful cancer-killing agents. In preclinical models, these “Torpedo cells” succeeded where traditional CAR-T cells often fail: They penetrated solid tumors and successfully destroyed them. “We take T cells that used to be cancer’s best friend and turn them into its worst enemy,” Ferreira said.
