Immune Organ Therapy
A New Foundation for Solid Tumor Treatment
Beating solid tumors takes reach, recognition and recall. ReChargeTM delivers all three by seeding an immune organ.
Reach
Challenge
Tumors shut the immune system out.
ReCharge
Builds an immune organ inside the tumor’s walls.
Recognition
Challenge
Tumors keep mutating, outrunning single-target drugs and the immune system.
ReCharge
Continuously trains immune cells to match every tumor change.
Recall
Challenge
Tumors often return and spread after treatment.
ReCharge
Sends trained immune cells to hunt tumors throughout the body, now and long after treatment.
The science
Immunity works through organization.
Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are immune organs that form inside some tumors. Like lymph nodes, they give immune cells a place to learn and work together. In several studied cancer cohorts, TLS have been associated with longer survival and better response to immunotherapy.
ReCharge combines a supportive gel with the patient’s own immune cells and is designed to form TLS at the tumor.
Its antigen-agnostic design aims to engage many tumor antigens at once.
How ReCharge works
01
Immune cells in a supportive gel
02
Image-guided injection into a tumor
03
An immune organ forms inside the tumor
Illustration of the intended ReCharge approach. In preclinical development.
Platform & lead program
One platform, starting with ovarian cancer.
PRECLINICAL DEVELOPMENT
We are starting with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, where women urgently need new options.
Our broader goal is to expand the same platform across solid-tumor types.
Advancing toward clinical testing.
Our next planned stage is a Phase 1 clinical trial, subject to regulatory clearance and further financing.
Research
Built on human immune biology.
Our approach builds on research at Harvard’s Wyss Institute into how human immune cells organize into lymphoid structures.
Human lymphoid follicles in laboratory models ↗
Advanced Science · 2022
Human immune organization and influenza vaccine responses.
Modeling mRNA vaccine responses ↗
iScience · 2026
An in vitro model for studying human vaccine responses.
These studies examine human immune organization and vaccine responses in laboratory models.
Intellectual property
Defiant Therapeutics holds an option to negotiate an exclusive license with Harvard University for the core technology underlying the ReCharge platform.
Our team
Science and company-building experience.
Sam Inverso, PhD
Co-founder & CEO
Scientist, entrepreneur and company builder. Co-founded ReadCoor, acquired by 10x Genomics, and led business development and partnerships at Harvard’s Wyss Institute.
Girija Goyal, PhD
Co-founder & CSO
Immunologist, bioengineer, and inventor of ReCharge. Her research focuses on human immune tissue and lymphoid biology. She developed the core technology at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, supported by ARPA-H funding, before co-founding Defiant to drive commercialization.
Connect with Defiant.
For research, development and general inquiries.