Hello and welcome to the A16Z Journal Club. I'm Lauren Richardson.

This is our podcast where we cover recent scientific advances, why they matter, and how to take them

from proof of principle to practice.

Karti therapy is a groundbreaking medicine that uses engineered

T cells to attack cancer. It has revolutionized oncology and today we're digging into

new research using Carty to treat a wide range of conditions

including those related to aging. Kar T stands for chimeric antigen receptor T cell and

the basic idea is to create an immune cell that is programmed to target and destroy

specific cells. But until recently, KARTT have primarily been trained to go after cancer.

But given the incredible tractability of these engineered T cells, new specificity can be encoded.

So what other cells should we target with Karti?

I'm joined by A16Z General Partner, Jorge Conde

and Biodealed partner Andy Tran

to discuss a recent article in nature

in which the author's engineered Karti cells

to recognize and kill senescent cells.

Cellular senescence is a process where cells stop dividing or sort of go to sleep. And in many cases it can be protective, but if too many cells become senescent or are not removed from an area, they can trigger

inflammation and cause disease. Critically, senescent cells build up as we age and contribute

to a whole host of aging related conditions.

In our discussion today we cover how the authors created and validated these

senescent killing or senalytic carti cells the various diseases that could be treated with these senalytic carte cells, the various diseases that could be treated with these

sonalytic cartease, the hurdles to getting them into the clinic, and how they

...