Jennifer Buell, President and Chief Executive Officer at MiNK Therapeutics, shared on X:
“The vision from the ARPA-H visionary ‘BoSS’ Dr. Gloria Elliott kicks off a future where living cell therapies can move beyond ultra-cold storage to scalable, accessible medicines.
MiNK Therapeutics is so excited to be on this team.
Bold science. Transformative potential. Global impact.”
What is the BoSS program?
The BioStabilization Systems (BoSS) program, launched by ARPA-H, aims to find new ways to preserve biological medicines, including cell and gene therapies, without relying on ultra-cold storage. The idea is to make these treatments easier to store and transport, potentially even at room temperature, without compromising their quality or effectiveness.
Many cell therapies currently require storage at temperatures as low as -196°C. This makes their distribution difficult and expensive, particularly because of:
- High costs of specialised storage and transportation.
- The need for a reliable, uninterrupted cold-chain infrastructure.
- Limited access to these treatments in remote areas and hospitals without specialised facilities.
- The risk of losing valuable treatments if storage or transportation conditions are disrupted.
- To address these challenges, ARPA-H has committed up to $87 million over four years to support research and the development of new preservation technologies.
MiNK Therapeutics’ involvement
In September 2026, MiNK Therapeutics announced that its agenT-797 iNKT cell therapy platform had been selected for an ARPA-H-funded project under the BoSS program.
The company joined a research consortium led by Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, alongside Likarda, CPSI Biotech, OFC Life Sciences, CaseBioscience, the University of Colorado Boulder and Fresenius Kabi.
The team will work on developing methods to preserve living cells at room temperature while maintaining their viability and therapeutic properties. Its research will involve several approaches, including:
- AI-assisted experimental design.
- Specialised cell-preservation formulations.
- Hydrogel-based technologies.
- Freeze-assisted droplet drying.
The aim is to develop a stable cell product that can be stored and transported without the need for conventional ultra-cold conditions.
Why this matters for MiNK Therapeutics
Led by President and CEO Jennifer Buell, MiNK Therapeutics is developing readily available cell-based treatments for cancer and immune-related diseases. Its participation in the BoSS program addresses an important challenge facing the wider cell therapy field: how to make these treatments easier to store, transport and distribute.
If successful, the research could help reduce storage and transportation costs, simplify distribution and make advanced cell therapies more accessible to patients worldwide. For MiNK, it could also support the wider use of its iNKT cell therapy platform by making treatments easier to deliver beyond specialised treatment centres.
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