A Durham biotech company that is developing products to help boost patients' immune systems has picked up $35.2 million in new funding.

Argos Therapeutics, which traces its roots to research done at Duke University, will use the money to develop its treatments for cancer, infectious diseases and transplant rejections.

The treatments are entering clinical trials designed to show effectiveness for humans, although it will likely be years before the products are ready for the market.

CEO John Bonfiglio said the new round of funding should take the company through 2009.

"At that point in time, we will need to go back and raise more money, or we will have to find a way to go public or be acquired," Bonfiglio said.

The decision will depend in part on results of continuing trials.

Argos' core technology combines a patient's own immune cells with genetic material -- RNA -- of the patient's specific cancer or virus. When reintroduced into a patient's bloodstream, the altered cells trigger the patient's immune system to attack the diseased cells.

Incorporated in 1997 and formerly known as Merix Bioscience, Argos had raised $52 million in venture capital before Wednesday's announcement.

Argos' new round of venture financing is the first since 2001, making an unusually long time between rounds for a venture-backed company.

The Triangle is home to dozens of small drug-development companies that depend on such financing to pay for research of new medicines, employees' salaries and other costs.

Licensing deals and multiple partnerships in the past seven years made it possible for Argos to wait so long between rounds.

The most significant partnership is with Kirin Pharma of Japan. Argos also won a $21.3 million contract from the National Institutes of Health in 2006 to develop an AIDS vaccine.

The financing announced by the company Wednesday includes three new investors and six that have participated in previous financing.

Cell therapy -- or the use of a patient's cells and immune system to fight disease -- is a controversial area of medicine.

But Bonfiglio said other companies are scheduled to report clinical data before Argos studies are complete in 2009.

"If any one of them has a successful trial, which we think there will be, it's going to change the way people view this whole area," he said. "That should help propel us as well."