CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Liberate Bio Inc. has secured licenses to key patents covering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) designs optimized for myeloid cells, strengthening the company’s efforts to develop in vivo CAR-M therapies that directly program immune cells inside the body.
The biotechnology company said the newly licensed intellectual property includes both exclusive and non-exclusive rights to CAR construct designs engineered specifically for myeloid cell populations such as monocytes and macrophages. The patents originate from Carisma Therapeutics and the University of Pennsylvania.
Company officials said the licensed CAR sequence technology complements Liberate Bio’s proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery platform, which is designed to selectively program monocytes and macrophages in vivo. By combining optimized CAR designs with targeted delivery technology, the company aims to advance a new class of immune therapies known as CAR-M, which rely on engineered macrophages rather than T cells.
“This licensing agreement meaningfully strengthens our clinical programs,” said Walter R. Strapps, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Liberate Bio. “Myeloid cells have unique biology distinct from T cells, and CAR constructs optimized for their activation and persistence are essential. By combining validated methods for CAR designs with our myeloid-selective LNP platform, we are building a differentiated and highly integrated approach to in vivo cell therapy.”
Liberate’s RAPTOR platform is designed to identify lipid nanoparticles capable of delivering RNA therapies to immune cells outside the liver. The company said the platform screens nanoparticles directly in non-human primates to identify delivery systems that can target specific immune cell types.
According to Liberate Bio, its lead lipid nanoparticle candidate has demonstrated more than 99 percent depletion of circulating B cells in non-human primates by selectively programming monocytes and macrophages.
“In vivo CAR-M represents a new chapter in immune reprogramming,” said Shawn P. Davis, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Liberate Bio. “By uniting best-in-class delivery with optimized myeloid CAR designs, we are establishing a durable foundation for a scalable and potentially safer alternative to CAR-T — one capable of reaching broader patient populations across autoimmune and oncology indications.”
The company said it plans to advance its first in vivo CAR-M candidate into IND-enabling studies, with the goal of supporting an initial clinical evaluation through an investigator-initiated trial in the second half of 2026.
