New Jersey may not have the best reputation, perhaps sullied by inevitable comparisons to MTV’s Jersey Shore or the Sopranos. But what it does have is its critical role—albeit underrated—as a biotech hub. Competing with South San Francisco and Boston, New Jersey is among the leading global centers for biomedical research, home to some of the largest companies in the space from Johnson & Johnson to Bristol Myers Squibb. The region has also become a magnet for venture-backed startups seeking to revolutionize how we treat diseases. A few weeks ago, I drove out to Bridgewater, N.J., and visited an unassuming office park where one such company, Cellares, is building sci-fi technology to cure blood cancer.
Bridgewater, as I discovered when I plugged the address into Google Maps to figure out how I would get there, is not close to New York City. This is not the part of New Jersey that is accessible by train, or even a quick Uber through the Holland Tunnel. But as Fabian Gerlinghaus, the cofounder and CEO of Cellares, explained to me, this was the perfect site to set up a cell therapy factory. For those of us who stopped our science education after high school biology, the concept of cell therapy is difficult to grasp. Put simply, it’s a type of treatment in which patients’ own white blood cells, a part of the immune system, are genetically engineered to recognize and kill cancer cells.

Full feature : Inside the futuristic biotech startup Cellares that’s building a cure for cancer with $355 million in funding.