Portal Biotechnologies Awarded $8M DARPA Contract to Increase Access to Cell Therapy via a Portable, Red Blood Cell Engineering Device for Rapid Point-of-Care Production and Treatment

• Portal’s collaboration with DARPA’s “Red Blood Cell (RBC) Factory” program aims to develop a portable, field-deployable, personalized and scalable cell therapy device that enables diverse cargo delivery to red blood cells within minutes
• Coupled with the recent launch of Portal’s clinical-scale MilliBooster, the RBC Factory project highlights the potential for Portal to underpin a new generation of cell therapies that are both more sophisticated and easily accessible

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Portal Biotechnologies, Inc. (“Portal”), a cell engineering platform company, announces that it has been awarded an $8M contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Biotechnology Office (BTO) for its Red Blood Cell (RBC) Factory Program. The program's mission is to develop a compact, portable system capable of rapidly loading diverse therapeutic cargo into red blood cells (RBCs) at the point of care, unlocking field-deployable, personalized and scalable cell therapies.

This initiative represents a significant leap forward in the field of cellular therapies, aiming to overcome the limitations of current ex vivo cell modification processes that are time-consuming, resource-intensive, and confined to specialized cleanrooms. By enabling rapid, on-demand modification of RBCs, the technology has the potential to transform personalized medical interventions in both military and civilian contexts, particularly in remote or resource-limited environments.

“Our goal is to streamline all the present complexities associated with cell therapies to a simple portable device deployable with minimal healthcare infrastructure,” said Armon Sharei, PhD, CEO of Portal Biotechnologies. “Similar to how the transition from mainframe computers to smartphones revolutionized access to information technology, the evolution from resource intensive centralized production to a portable cell therapy device could enable massive patient impact. We are grateful to the team at DARPA for the opportunity to drive that change.”

This DARPA project builds on Portal’s proprietary mechanoporation technology that passes patient cells through thin silicon membranes to enable delivery of virtually any material into any cell type - a critical step in cell therapy generation. Since it started operations in early 2023, Portal has launched three product lines, including the award-winning Galaxy instrument, the clinical-scale MilliBooster cartridge, and has established over 50 paid partnerships (including a majority of the top 10 global pharma). Key to the RBC Factory program is leveraging the team’s existing know-how on how to rapidly develop mechanoporation instruments and consumables across scales and apply them to historically challenging cell types like RBCs.

These latest developments highlight Portal’s deep commitment to enabling creation of next generation cell therapies while drastically simplifying manufacturing processes in both centralized and point-of-care settings.

About Portal Biotechnologies:

Portal is a cell engineering platform company focused on enabling next generation cell engineering and analytics across research and clinical applications. The company is implementing a simplified approach to intracellular delivery, focused on accelerating advances enabled by the new generation of RNA, gene editing, and AI-powered molecular design technologies. Portal’s initial product suite is based on a proprietary mechanical delivery system capable of delivering many different types of cargo to a broad range of cell types. The process relies on transient perturbation of a cell’s membrane as it transits through microscopic holes in a thin, specially designed, silicon surface. The technology's ability to be used stand-alone or as an integrated component of third-party systems provides a significant opportunity to broadly impact the fields of biological research and cellular therapeutics. For more information, please visit https://portal.bio/.