Shares of Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) soared as much as 8% yesterday after the company announced that it had formed a collaboration deal with Merck Serono -- a German biotechnology company with no relationship to Merck US (NYSE:MRK). Intrexon had partnered with Merck Serono to develop its chimeric antigen receptor T-cell  or CAR-T technology. CAR-T cells are genetically engineered T-cells with synthetic binding receptors that attach to cancerous cells and are then activated to defend the body from these cancerous cells by destroying them.

According to the terms of the deal Merck Serono will give an upfront payment to Intrexon of $115 million and the possibility for the company to receive an additional $826 million in additional milestone payments on the first two initiated programs. Merck Serono got into this deal because it wanted to get a piece of the new CAR-T technology that has sparked interest from many other biotechnology companies. Thanks to big biotechnology companies like Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO), Kite Pharma (NASDAQ:KITE), and Novartis (NYSE:NVS) who all incorporated the ability to engineer T-cells to mount an antigen-specific attack against cancerous cells using CAR-T.

In addition to the deal with Merck Serono, Intrexon also established another CAR-T deal with another biotechnology company known as Ziopharm Oncology (NASDAQ:ZIOP). Even though this deal took place between Intrexon and Ziopharm, Merck Serono will be allowed to opt in on any of the treatment collaborations that it would like to. Both Intrexon and Ziopharm will equally share all the upfront payment, milestones, and royalties associated with these trials.

As mentioned before these companies are developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cells that will be engineered to go out and kill cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone. It sure does beat all the current chemotherapeutic treatments that leave patients with many side effects such as: Hair loss, nausea, vomiting, and a loss of good healthy cells in the body. This form of personalized medicine of engineering T-cells to kill cancerous cells with a better safety profile is known in the biotech industry as immunotherapy treatments. These CAR-T cells being developed by the biotechnology companies above are just utilizing one form of immunotherapy. There are other companies that are using different approaches to immunotherapy without using CAR-T cells.

Shares of Intrexon are currently trading at $44.70 per share but the company should continue to see share price appreciation as it continues to forge additional deals with other big pharmaceutical companies for their CAR-T technology. However, the company hasn't done badly on the market as is; it has seen its share price rise 140% over the last six months. Can the shares drop slightly with the current market condition? Yes, it is quite possible; but for those who are invested in this long-term, Intrexon's future looks quite promising. As more Biotechs IPO, especially the ones that deal with the cancer immunotherapy component, Intrexon's value should be reflective of those stocks' share prices as well.