MUSC startup Torpedo Bio wins big at Catalyst pitch competition
image: MUSC Hollings Cancer Center scientist Leonardo M.R. Ferreira, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Torpedo Bio, which took home the $250,000 Catalyst Pitch Award at the inaugural Catalyst by Beemok Live Pitch Competition.
Credit: Medical University of South Carolina
Torpedo Bio, a Charleston-based biotechnology startup born from the research of MUSC Hollings Cancer Center scientist Leonardo M.R. Ferreira, Ph.D., earned one of the top awards at the first-ever Catalyst by Beemok Live Pitch Competition – securing $250,000 to advance a new approach to treating solid tumors.
Held Nov. 8 at Charleston’s Union Pier Terminal, the high-energy event drew applications from more than 250 companies, with 10 finalists selected to pitch investors for early-stage funding. Torpedo Bio was the only biotechnology company selected. Finalists collectively secured over $2.6 million in investment.
Co-founder and CEO Ferreira opened Torpedo Bio’s pitch with a stark statistic: Roughly half of all people will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. While CAR-T cell therapy has revolutionized treatment for blood cancers, it has fallen short against solid tumors, which are responsible for the most cancer diagnoses and deaths.
“Solid tumors like pancreatic, breast and lung cancers build a fortress around themselves, preventing traditional CAR-T cells from entering. The few that do get in are often exhausted and ineffective.”
Torpedo Bio’s technology breaks down those defenses. Its approach centers on regulatory T cells, or Tregs, which are normally the immune system’s brakes. Tumors exploit those brakes to protect themselves, using Tregs to help them evade the immune system. Ferreira’s lab discovered that, when engineered with high-affinity, cancer-targeting receptors, Tregs can be reprogrammed into powerful cancer-killing agents.
In preclinical models, these “Torpedo cells” succeeded where traditional CAR-T cells often fail: They penetrated solid tumors and successfully destroyed them.
“We take T cells that used to be cancer’s best friend and turn them into its worst enemy,” he said.
The Catalyst award will support Torpedo Bio through its next major milestones: completing preclinical studies, beginning pilot manufacturing in MUSC’s clean cell therapy facility and advancing toward an FDA investigational new drug (IND) application. Ferreira hopes to enroll patients in early clinical trials in the next two years.
“We have everything it takes. We truly believe Torpedo cells will save the lives of cancer patients with far fewer side effects and greater efficacy than anything else out there," he said.
The company’s rapid rise reflects both scientific strength and investment. Incorporated just a year ago, Torpedo Bio already completed the SCBio Drive Accelerator Program and secured backing from the American Cancer Society and Swim Across America. Its scientific advisors, including Hollings experts John Wrangle, M.D., Nathan Dolloff, Ph.D., and Richard O’Neill, Ph.D., and Immuvia co-founder and CEO Iosif Gershteyn, MBA, bring deep expertise in T-cell engineering, gene therapy and solid tumor immunotherapy as well as a strong record of patented innovations that help guide Torpedo Bio’s strategy.
“Our key is being local. We can make advances faster and keep our strengths close to home,” Ferreira said. “It’s been heartening to see that what scientists, investors, physicians and patients want all aligns. It feels like we’re building a fire that keeps getting bigger.”