Today's memo is an international collaboration done with my friend Ambrose, a particularly bright young gentlemen out in Singapore. You should definitely follow him: @zebo. You can check out his take on Adaptimmune Therapeutics here.

You can always choose to pass on an investment, but give yourself a chance at understanding the basics. You might surprise yourself. Investing is all about learning. "Stick to what you know" is a death sentence if you don't continuously expand what you know.

Adaptimmune, is a leader in T-cell therapy, and has clinical trials ongoing for three wholly owned T-cells. (Important: the trials are going very well)

T-Cells are a type of white blood cell that is an essential part of the immune system. T-Cells determine the specificity of immune response to foreign substances in the body. Rather than generically attack any antigens, T cells circulate until they encounter their specific antigen.

Cancer is menacing mainly because of how good it is at evading the immune system. $ADAP has engineered special T-Cells such that they can recognize and bind to cancer cells and as a result, can stimulate the immune system to target and destroy cancer cells.

Clinical trials are judged on a set of factors- one of which is called Disease Control Rate which is the percentage of patients whose disease shrinks or remains stable over a certain time period. Adaptimmune's ADP-A2M4 T-Cell had a disease control rate of 94% in a recent Phase 1 trial.

Phase 1 trials went so well that Adaptimmune is now looking to target more diseases. Investing in $ADAP is a bet on continued success in Phase 2 trials, and and expanded list of potential diseases that could be treated with Adaptimmune's T-Cell therapies. Definitely check out Ambrose's memo, which goes further into the efficacy of the trials, the response from institutional investors, and $ADAP 's revenue growth.

Investing in early-stage biotech companies is risky because if a trial ends in failure, it can end the company's life. They are also prone to huge swings, as everyone tries to pile in the moment a trial is going well, and everyone runs for the exits the moment there's a rumor that a trial is not going well.

Adaptimmune is a good company to pick to exploit this dynamic, in my opinion, because of the longer-term potential of engineered T-Cells. More-so than normal, I feel like a single failed trial would not negate the promise of this approach. I expect there to be a lot of bumps along the way, and while it is less typical to see a buy-and-hold approach with biotech stocks- that's the approach I'm taking. I will be buying in at tomorrow's open.