SQZ Biotech is creating a system that compresses cells to make it easier for the body to receive medicine. The technology is based on work done in the labs of MIT scientist and prolific entrepreneur Robert Langer, a cofounder of the company.

A medical startup company that's developing an unusual technology to deliver drugs has raised $5 million in venture capital.

The investment round was led by Polaris Partners, a Boston venture capital firm that has invested in many of Langer's other business ventures.

The company calls its technology CellSqueeze, because it compresses cells like a sponge.


SQZ Biotech said it has developed a novel way to get material into cells without damaging them by using compressed nitrogen to force cells through dozens of tiny channels.

Chief executive Armon Sharei and his colleagues hypothesize that when they emerge from the constriction, the cells develop small, temporary pores that molecules — like drugs or DNA — will flow through. The hope is that, eventually, doctors will be able to develop treatments that get squeezed into cells and then teach the patient's immune systems what to attack.

Now based at University of Massachusetts Boston's Venture Development Center, SQZ Biotech has raised more than $7 million in equity and grant funding, Sharei said.

In the past few months, Sharei said, the company has almost doubled its workforce to 20 employees and contractors, and centralized its operations at UMass. With fund-raising completed, he said, they hope to conduct more research, consider commercial partnerships, and evaluate the latest models of CellSqueeze that have been improved upon by SQZ's engineers.

"It works better and it's less complicated to make because of design improvements," Sharei said.

SQZ was founded in 2013 to build upon the lab work of Langer, Klavs Jensen, an MIT professor and cofounder, and Sharei, who started working in the laboratory as a doctoral student.

The life sciences investment firm 20/20 HealthCare Partners, based in Newton, also participated in the funding round.

Amy Schulman, a partner at Polaris, will chair SQZ Biotech's board of directors.

Jack Newsham can be reached

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