Umoja Blog

By: Andy Scharenberg, M.D., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Where the arts and science meetI had the opportunity to speak on a panel at one of the largest conferences hosted in the U.S. each year: SXSW (South by Southwest®). Founded in 1987, SXSW is an event that brings together thousan...

By: Ryan Crisman, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Technical Officer IntroductionIn the fast-paced landscape of biotechnology, the demand for advanced tools and techniques is on a relentless rise. Lentiviral vectors (LVVs), which are a cornerstone in immunology and cell and gene therapy, have garne...

By: Teisha Rowland, Ph.D., Principal Scientist Last fall, I felt a lump in my breast. After debating for a few days about what to do – Had it been there before, and I just hadn’t noticed it? Should I be concerned about it? – I ended up calling my Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) physician’s o...

Ten years ago, a little girl was in the battle of her life against a foe she couldn’t possibly comprehend. Two years previously, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 5. No parent wants to receive the news that their child has a potentially lethal disease, but for the ...

A Brief History of the CAR T Cell Field While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies have revolutionized the treatment of blood-forming tissue cancers (i.e., hematologic malignancies), major limitations hinder their widespread application. Decades of CAR T cell therapy efforts, start...