News and Trends 9 Feb 2023 TILT Biotherapeutics closes €22M financing for oncology immunotherapy trials TILT Biotherapeutics (TILT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapies, has closed its €22 million ($23.8 million) round. This follows on from the first close of €10 million in June 2022. The financing was led by Finland’s Lifeline Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm founded by serial entrepreneurs. The funding will be used to advance […] February 9, 2023 - 2 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Feb 2023 Mnemo Therapeutics and Institut Curie studies lead to cancer-specific targets Mnemo Therapeutics, a French biotechnology company developing immunotherapies, has announced publication of two scientific studies developed at Institut Curie, its closest academic collaborator, in the journal Science Immunology. The publications reveal TE-exon splicing junctions act as a source of novel recurrent, cancer-specific targets and have potential implications for developing more effective and less toxic immunotherapies. […] February 7, 2023 - 3 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Feb 2023 Next-generation small molecules hold promise for immunotherapy By Ian B. Walters, chief executive officer and chairman, Portage Biotech In recent years, PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint antibody therapies have revolutionized the immuno-oncology landscape and offered cancer patients the hope for a long term treatment and cure of their disease. While these treatments have shown great promise in reversing T-cell exhaustion, many patients still have limited […] February 1, 2023 - 3 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 31 Jan 2023 The next breakthrough in cancer treatment? In our body, we have an innate immune system and an immune system that is developed throughout life. Part of the innate immune system consists of so-called NK (natural killer) cells. This is a type of immune cell that specializes in killing cancer cells. These cells may be of great importance for cancer treatment in […] January 31, 2023 - 4 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 27 Jan 2023 HKUMed uncovers T cell exhaustion factor driving cancer immunotherapy resistance A research team from the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) has identified an unexpected driver of cancer immunotherapy resistance: the harmful effect of chronic Type I Interferon signaling on tumor-killing CD8+ T cells. The findings provided new insights into the development of exhausted CD8+ T cells, which no longer effectively […] January 27, 2023 - 2 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Jan 2023 Brenus Pharma and InSphero bag €1.5M for next-generation cancer cell immunotherapy Brenus Pharma and InSphero AG have received a €1.5 million grant for the collaborative project “STC-1010: A First-in-Class Allogeneic Cell Vaccine Against Cancer,” which aims to use 3D cell culture to develop a novel cell immunotherapy for colorectal cancer. Funding was provided by the Eurostars fund, a support mechanism for small and medium-sized enterprises under […] January 20, 2023 - 4 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 20 Dec 2022 Ebvallo approval ushers in off-the-shelf T-cell immunotherapies Patient-derived CAR-T immunotherapies have dominated the cancer immunotherapy space over the last decade. The EU approval of Atara Biotherapeutics’ Ebvallo marks the first immunotherapy based on T cells sourced from healthy donors. Since the approvals of Kymriah and Yescarta in 2017, CAR-T immunotherapies have changed the way we treat rare forms of blood cancer. In […] December 20, 2022 - 6 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Dec 2022 Watch: Valo Therapeutics at Bio-Europe Valo Therapeutics Oy is a Finnish immunotherapy company developing antigen-coated oncolytic viruses and vaccine vectors as innovative immunotherapy approaches against cancer and infectious disease. The Valo Therapeutics lead platform, PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus), was developed at the laboratory of Vincenzo Cerullo at the University of Helsinki in Finland. It turns oncolytic adenoviruses into targeted […] December 20, 2022 - 1 minutemin - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Dec 2022 Watch: Mendus interview Mendus AB is a Swedish company dedicated to changing the course of cancer treatment by addressing tumor recurrence and improving survival outcomes for cancer patients, while preserving quality of life. The company leverages its expertise in allogeneic dendritic cell biology to develop an advanced clinical pipeline of novel, off-the-shelf, cell-based immunotherapies which combine clinical efficacy […] December 20, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Dec 2022 Sanofi and Innate Pharma expand natural killer cell deal Sanofi and Innate Pharma SA have expanded their collaboration, with Sanofi licensing a natural killer (NK) cell engager program targeting B7H3 from Innate’s ANKET (Antibody-based NK Cell Engager Therapeutics) platform. Sanofi will also have the option to add up to two additional ANKET targets. Upon candidate selection, Sanofi will be responsible for all development, manufacturing and […] December 19, 2022 - 3 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Dec 2022 ImaginAb launches trial to study neoadjuvant immunotherapy ImaginAb Inc., in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA), has launched an investigator-initiated phase II trial. It will explore the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment of stage III surgically resectable melanoma through use of CD8 ImmunoPET. ImaginAb is a global biotechnology company focused on […] December 14, 2022 - 2 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Dec 2022 Etcembly reveals breakthrough in optimizing TCR assets Etcembly has announced the successful prediction and optimization of multiple T cell receptor (TCR) assets for targeting leukemias and solid tumors. The company’s machine learning platform EMLy (Etcembly machine learning) enables AI based engineering of novel TCRs from the complete theoretical TCR repertoire. The unification of machine-learning-based optimization with empirical validation has facilitated the rapid […] December 14, 2022 - 2 minutesmins - By Jim Cornall Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email