CaseBioscience Joins $7.3 Million ARPA-H Team on Cell Preservation

CaseBioscience announced October 1, 2026, that it has joined a multidisciplinary team led by Likarda that received up to $7.3 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) through the agency's BioStabilization Systems (BoSS) program.¹ The Reversible Ambient Biostabilization (RAB) team is 1 of 3 teams selected for the BoSS program, which funds technologies to produce, store, and ship cell therapies at room temperature without refrigeration.¹

What is the ARPA-H BoSS program designed to do?

ARPA-H's BoSS program aims to make advanced biological medicines as easy to ship and store as aspirin by eliminating dependence on cold-chain logistics. The agency has committed up to $87 million across 4 years to fund 3 competing teams plus 1 independent verification partner, with each team pursuing a different technical approach to room-temperature cell preservation.² The RAB team, led by Likarda, also includes Draper, CPSI Biotech, Fresenius Kabi, MiNK Therapeutics, CaseBioscience, and the Spencer Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, combining expertise in preservation science, cell biology, cellular metabolism, bioengineering, immunology, stem cell biology, formulation, and manufacturing.¹

"The concept of preserving living cells in a dry state has been pursued for more than two decades, but significant scientific and engineering barriers have yielded limited success," said John Baust, PhD, a collaborator on the project with CPSI Biotech, in a company press release.¹ "ARPA-H's BoSS program provides an unprecedented opportunity to tackle this from multiple scientific and engineering directions simultaneously. If successful, this work could represent a paradigm shift in how biologics are preserved, stored, and distributed."

What role will CaseBioscience and its team members play?

CaseBioscience will contribute expertise in clinical media formulation, biopreservation, and cellular metabolism to the development and evaluation of new approaches for long-term ambient stabilization of therapeutic cells. The program's initial phase runs 15 months, beginning September 24, 2026, with the RAB team now underway on its collaborative research and development work.¹

Kevin Flynn, PhD, chief scientific officer at CaseBioscience, said in the release that the company was "excited to be part of a program with the scientific depth and resources to pursue ideas that could meaningfully advance the field."¹

Ami Mezezi, co-founder and managing director of CaseBioscience, called the award "a strong validation of our science, our preservation technology, and the team behind it" in the release,¹ adding that making cell therapies as easy to store and ship as conventional medicines "would fundamentally change who can access them."

How does this build on earlier biopreservation research?

The award extends research with roots inside CaseBioscience's own scientific team. Lynda McGinnis, PhD, R&D director at CaseBioscience, helped pioneer early work on desiccated storage of sperm more than 2 decades ago. "This is a great opportunity to revisit research that some of us started in Boston 25 years ago," Dr McGinnis said in the release.¹ "It's time for a whole new paradigm of how we store and transport cells for clinical therapies and even reproductive medicine."

Cell therapies have shown the potential to transform treatment of cancer and other serious diseases, but broader access remains constrained in part by the cost and complexity of cold-chain logistics required to keep many cell-based products viable.

What are the limitations?

The $7.3 million award is an "up to" figure, and ARPA-H has not disclosed how disbursements will be structured or whether funding continues past the 15-month initial phase. No preclinical or performance data have been released, so it is not yet possible to assess how any resulting preservation technology will perform.

References

1. CaseBioscience. CaseBioscience joins team awarded up to $7.3 million by ARPA-H to advance ambient preservation of cell therapies. Press release. Published October 1, 2026. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://casebioscience.com/blogs/news/casebioscience-joins-team-awarded-up-to-7-3-million-by-arpa-h-to-advance-ambient-preservation-of-cell-therapies
2. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. ARPA-H teams prepare to take the "200-degree leap" and end cold-chain dependence for life-saving cell therapies. Published September 25, 2026. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://arpa-h.gov/news-and-events/arpa-h-teams-prepare-take-200-degree-leap-and-end-cold-chain-dependence-life-saving