Anocca AB (Anocca), a leading T-cell receptor-engineered T-cell (TCR-T) therapeutics company, and Shinobi Therapeutics (Shinobi), developer of immune-evasive induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived CD8 αβT-cell therapies (iPS-T), announced a strategic partnership to use Shinobi’s proprietary immune evasive iPS-T cell platform with novel candidate TCRs, discovered and validated by Anocca, to develop a new class of off-the-shelf allogeneic TCR engineered iPS-T-cell therapies (TCR-iPS-T) for solid tumors.
“Anocca has made tremendous progress using our unique technology platform to systematically map cancer targets and build potent and highly specific TCR libraries to deliver personalized TCR-T treatments. As we prepare to progress our first gene-edited autologous TCR-T product into the clinic, we are excited to partner with Shinobi and work together to develop innovative off-the-shelf TCR-T cell therapies,” said Anocca’s CEO and co-founder, Reagan Jarvis. “Shinobi’s Katana platform has the potential to offer treatment options for most cancer patients when combined with Anocca’s ability to systematically unlock the largely unexploited landscape of TCR-T targets.”
“Combining Shinobi’s immune evasive iPS-T cell platform with Anocca’s world-class TCR discovery platform will accelerate our mission of building a comprehensive pipeline of TCR and CAR-targeted off-the-shelf T-cell therapies,” said Dan Kemp, Shinobi’s CEO. “This is an ideal partnership between two emerging biotechs where the alignment of our technologies could realize a shared goal of making transformative TCR-iPS-T cell therapies and making them accessible to cancer patients on a global scale.”
Shinobi’s ‘Katana’ technology specifically enables the efficient introduction of antigen-targeting TCR and/or CAR constructs into its immune evasive iPS-T cells in a plug-and-play manner. Anocca has developed a unique deep-tech discovery platform that uses programmable human cells to recreate and manipulate T-cell immunity and deliver libraries of highly specific, clinically deployable TCR candidates for the treatment of solid cancers. In this joint program, Shinobi and Anocca will work together to produce TCR engineered CD8 αβiPS-T-cells against validated cancer targets and deliver pre-clinical proof of concept. A successful outcome will pave the way for the development of novel off-the-shelf treatments in solid tumor indications for the broadest patient populations.
SOURCE: GLobeNewswire