A new breed of cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

As a biochemist developing antibody therapies at a major pharmaceutical company, Li Peng spent years fixated on membrane proteins. But every now and then, she wondered if she and her colleagues were missing something. Proteins carry out a cell’s work, yet whether and where they act often depend on another type of biomolecule—glycans. These sugars that coat the surface of a protein can influence a drug’s structure and stability and even dictate if it works at all. “In the back of my mind, I always felt we had overlooked glycobiology,” says Peng, who worked for nearly a decade at MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s biologics research arm. “But I didn’t have the resources or the tools or the power to make a big initiative.” In the summer of 2016, Peng received an intriguing email from the CEO of a Boston-area start-up. He hoped to interest her in an entirely new approach to cancer