Typewriter Therapeutics, Inc. has emerged from stealth with $56m in Series A financing.
Typewriter is a biotech company developing safe, durable and re-dosable genetic medicines with curative impact for patients with cancer, autoimmune diseases, and severe genetic diseases.
The company also announced the appointments of Matthew Stanton as chief executive officer, Leanne Peiser, as chief scientific officer, and Mikael Dolsten as a member of the company’s board of directors.
Typewriter’s Target-Primed Reverse Transcription (TPRT) technology platform is built on the R2 retrotransposon, a natural gene-insertion system discovered by the company’s academic co-founders. Typewriter’s two-part, all-RNA therapy comprises a payload mRNA to make the R2 protein and a second RNA containing the therapeutic gene flanked by sequences to recruit the R2 protein. Inside the cell, the two assemble into an active complex that inserts the gene into the specific target site by TPRT. The R2 machinery then degrades along with the mRNA, leaving only the inserted gene at its intended location.
Typewriter’s initial focus will be on two high-value indications with life-changing potential to patients: in vivo CAR T and genetic liver diseases. The company’s first NHP studies are planned for late 2026.
“By inserting a durable, functioning gene into a safe-harbour site in T cells using lipid nanoparticle-delivered RNA, our technology is designed to create safer, re-dosable genetic medicines that are accessible to many more patients than current cumbersome and complex CAR T approaches,” said Stanton.
“This financing enables us to build on the proof-of-concept we have established in humanized mouse models and establish our first in vivo CAR T development candidate.”
Prior to Typewriter, Stanton was a venture partner at Raven, RA Capital’s healthcare incubator. He spent seven years at Generation Bio, as chief technology officer and chief scientific officer. Prior to Generation, he was vice president and head of chemistry at Moderna Therapeutics, where his team identified proprietary lipid nanoparticles for vaccine development and helped to bring the first mRNA vaccines into clinical development.
Peiser brings to Typewriter more than 20 years of R&D leadership across biotech and pharma, with deep expertise in immunology, immunotherapy, and cellular therapy, including autologous, allogeneic, and in vivo CAR T for oncology and autoimmune diseases. Most recently as executive director of translational research, cellular therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), she served as a senior scientific lead for their CAR T portfolio across multiple indications.
The financing was led by AN Venture Partners and RA Capital Management with participation from ANRI, Gemseki, and SBI US Gateway Fund.