# Armon Sharei

> Armon Sharei is the founder and CEO of Portal Biotechnologies, a cell-engineering platform company in Watertown, Massachusetts that builds devices to push genetic and molecular cargo into living cells without killing them. He earned a chemical engineering PhD at MIT, where he invented the membrane-squeezing CellSqueeze technique, then founded SQZ Biotechnologies, raised more than $300M, struck a billion-dollar Roche partnership, and took the company public on the NYSE in 2020 before being ousted and watching it liquidate in 2024. After a sabbatical spent drawing comics about immune cells, he returned with Portal, choosing this time to sell tools rather than develop drugs, and has built a network of 100+ customers including most of the top 10 global pharma companies plus an $8M DARPA contract.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Portal Biotechnologies
- **Organizations:** Portal Biotechnologies, SQZ Biotechnologies, Pear VC (advisory council)
- **Nationality:** American (Iranian heritage)
- **Education:** Undergraduate studies, Stanford University, PhD, Chemical Engineering (labs of Klavs Jensen and Robert Langer), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Postdoctoral fellowship, Immunology, Harvard Medical School
- **Known for:** Invented the CellSqueeze / mechanoporation method for delivering material into nearly any cell type without killing it, Founded SQZ Biotechnologies and led it from invention through a NYSE IPO in 2020, Raised more than $300M in equity financing and built a $1B+ collaboration with Roche at SQZ

## Career timeline

- **pre-2014** — Develops the CellSqueeze membrane-squeezing technique during his PhD at MIT
- **2014** — SQZ Biotechnologies wins a startup competition; CellSqueeze named one of Scientific American's Top 10 World Changing Ideas
- **2015** — SQZ raises Series A and announces partnership trajectory; named to Fierce Biotech's Fierce 15
- **2017** — Named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer
- **2020** — SQZ Biotechnologies goes public on the NYSE during the biotech IPO boom
- **2022** — Ousted as CEO of SQZ by the board in November
- **2023** — Roche ends its SQZ partnership; Sharei takes a sabbatical and launches Portal in December
- **2024** — SQZ liquidates for ~$12M in February; Portal raises $5M pre-seed led by Pear VC in March and ships its first product
- **2025** — Portal wins an $8M DARPA contract for a Red Blood Cell Factory program and raises a round led by NFX; surpasses 100 active customers

## Achievements

- Invented the CellSqueeze / mechanoporation method for delivering material into nearly any cell type without killing it
- Founded SQZ Biotechnologies and led it from invention through a NYSE IPO in 2020
- Raised more than $300M in equity financing and built a $1B+ collaboration with Roche at SQZ
- Ran three oncology clinical trials at SQZ
- CellSqueeze named one of Scientific American's Top 10 World Changing Ideas (2014)
- Named to Fierce Biotech's Fierce 15 (2015) and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2017)
- Founded Portal Biotechnologies and built 100+ active customers including most of the top 10 global pharma within ~2 years
- Won an $8M DARPA contract for Portal's Red Blood Cell Factory program

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — Portal awarded an $8M DARPA contract for its Red Blood Cell (RBC) Factory program
- **2025** — Portal raised a funding round led by NFX and surpassed 100 active customers, including most of the top 10 global pharma companies
- **2024-03** — Portal raised $5M pre-seed led by Pear VC and shipped its first product (the Galaxy instrument)

## Links

- Website: https://portal.bio
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRbeCLvKDSs

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/armon-sharei
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-25