BioCentury
ARTICLE | Emerging Company Profile

BlueSphere: TCR discovery at scale

Sole investor and integrated health system UPMC brings a client’s perspective on the Pitt spinout’s TCR cell therapies

June 17, 2022 10:41 PM UTC

BlueSphere is taking a high-throughput, lower-cost approach to TCR and neoantigen discovery that it thinks will enable multi-targeted cell therapies that stem resistance. With the venture and commercialization arm of an integrated health system as its sole investor, the company is incorporating that future client perspective into its go-to-market strategy.

Founded in 2017 with technology from University of Pittsburgh, BlueSphere Bio has raised a total of $120 million from UPMC Enterprises, including a $105 million series B round in December 2020. In January of that year, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) unit committed to invest $1 billion in life sciences companies developing new drugs, diagnostics and devices by the end of 2024...