Repair the body when it cannot repair itself
Driven by a vision to liberate patients from the burden of degenerative disease, BlueRock Therapeutics is ushering in a new era of cell-based medicine that repairs the body when it cannot repair itself.
BlueRock was founded in 2016 when Versant Ventures, a top-tier venture capital firm, and global pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG provided $225 million in Series A financing toward BlueRock’s mission to cure diseases characterized by significant cell loss and diminished ability to self-repair.
BlueRock and its team of preeminent scientists are pioneering cell therapies that replace dead, damaged, or dysfunctional cells to restore critical natural functions in the body.
With an approach that can be applied to diversified therapeutic programs with enormous unmet need and blockbuster potential, BlueRock is initially targeting severe brain and heart conditions. Our goal is to alter the course of disease and drastically improve quality of life for patients.
BlueRock’s culture is defined by scientific innovation, the highest ethical standards and an urgency to bring transformative treatments to all who would benefit.
BlueRock is leveraging a corporate model with distributed research efforts coupled with centralized platform development and manufacturing. Proximity to our collaborators provides exposure to a diversity of approaches and rapid advancement, translating into a robust pipeline moving into the clinic.
Driven by a vision to liberate patients from the burden of degenerative disease…
The Need
Cells are the machines of human life. Every function in our body — from our memory and digestive system to the very beating of our heart — relies on healthy cells. When these cells die or are damaged, and are unable to replenish themselves, we see the ramifications in the form of degenerative disease.
Patients with degenerative diseases have few treatment options, and none that modify the disease itself. Instead, the patient’s symptoms are managed through drugs, surgical procedures, or artificial devices that are engineered to replicate natural processes. While these approaches may provide life-saving interventions, they are poor surrogates, as they cannot adequately replicate the natural functions performed by the elegant, intricate machinery of the human cell.
BlueRock is building an industry-leading platform that uses healthy cells to regenerate and restore the body’s native functions, with the goal of altering the course of the disease rather than just treating symptoms. Our platform is based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be generated from cells in a normal blood draw from a consenting adult, and produced in large quantities using state-of-the-art cell manufacturing technologies.
Through scientific and manufacturing excellence, BlueRock is ushering in a new era of medicine that heals.
Cells are the machines of human life.
Our Approach
Harnessing the Power of the Cell to:
Replace missing or degenerate natural biological functions
Restore the native biologic
Reverse degenerative disease
BlueRock is pioneering the development of first-in-class universally compatible, allogeneic cell therapies that replace dead, damaged, or dysfunctional cells in patients with degenerative disease.
We believe that our cell therapies, when administered to the patient, can help restore the body’s critical natural functions and alter the course of disease.
To develop our cell therapies, we are harnessing the power of induced pluripotent stem cells, also called iPSCs. These are stem cells that can be turned into any cell type in the human body. Our powerful cell therapy-development engine will produce medicines that address multiple disease areas, beginning with degenerative neurological and cardiovascular conditions.
Our most advanced therapeutic candidate, for Parkinson’s disease, will enter the clinic in 2018.
We believe that our cell therapies, when administered to the patient, can help restore the body’s critical natural functions and alter the course of disease.
Manufacturing
The potential of cell therapy to transform medicine has been recognized for decades. Biomedical scientists and doctors have long understood that healthy cells are capable of addressing disease in a way that no biologic drug or medical device could.
However, to date the complexity of manufacturing cells that are suitable for use in patients has hindered the therapeutic potential of cell therapy. It’s been impossible to create the specific cell types in quantities large enough to meet the needs of patients with degenerative diseases — until now. Today, using the latest in molecular biology technologies and manufacturing approaches, BlueRock is able to overcome prior hurdles.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which form the basis of our cell therapy program, can be generated in unlimited quantities. When exposed to the correct sequence of biological signals, iPCSs can be turned into any cell type in the human body. Due to these qualities, BlueRock has chosen iPSCs to produce unlimited quantities of highly specific human cells in amounts that are required for therapeutic use.
BlueRock uses state-of-the-art cell-manufacturing facilities, made possible through our strategic partnerships with leading academic, medical organizations. Our internal team of leading cell scientists and process development engineers ensure that we are generating clinical-grade cells for our programs — and ultimately providing patients with a transformative cell therapy that’s the first of its kind.
Our internal team of leading cell scientists and process development engineers ensure that we are creating clinical-grade cells for our programs.
Contact Us
Over the next 12 months, BlueRock will be significantly expanding staff at all locations. Contact us to learn about our rewarding career opportunities in New York, Boston/Cambridge, and Toronto.
Toronto, ON
BlueRock Toronto
MaRS Discovery District
101 College Street, East Tower, 15-701 Toronto, ON
M5G 1L7, Canada
New York, NY
BlueRock New York
Alexandria Center for Life Science
450 E 29th Street, Suite 504
New York, NY 10016, USA
Cambridge, MA
BlueRock Corporate Headquarters
1 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02142, USA