A2 Biotherapeutics (www.a2bio.com), a biotechnology company developing innovative cell therapies for solid tumor cancer patients, today announced the closing of its $71.5M Series B financing. Proceeds will fund the advancement of its Tmod (T-cell module) platform and the clinical development and in-house manufacturing of its three near-term product candidates. Tmod-engineered T cells uniquely combine a potent activating mechanism to kill tumor cells with a blocking mechanism that protects normal cells from harm by exploiting the loss of genetic material in tumors. "We are the first company to create robust engineered T cells that can integrate two signals in this way, harnessing the awesome power of immune cells to attack tumors that have lost specific genes, while sparing normal cells whose genomes are intact," said Scott Foraker, president and chief executive officer of A2.