GigaGen and Cellular Therapeutics Ltd Sign Collaboration for Novel TCR Discovery Directly from Patient’s T cells
South San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 27, 2016 -- GigaGen Inc., a biotechnology company with patented technology for discovery of T cell receptor (TCR) and antibody therapeutics from human immune repertoires, today announced a collaboration with Cellular Therapeutics Limited (CTL) to investigate TCR sequences in Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) for therapeutic potential. CTL, based in Manchester, England, is an immuno-oncology company specializing in the use of autologous TIL to fight a range of cancers.
In this collaboration GigaGen and CTL will work together using TIL from patients that were shown by CTL to be clinically efficacious in malignant melanoma. CTL will provide samples to GigaGen to isolate millions of single immune cells from the samples, capture the DNA of the TCRs in the sample, create TCR protein expression libraries, and then screen TCRs for reactivity against tumors. GigaGen and CTL will develop therapeutic TCR candidates as adoptive cell therapies or recombinant protein drugs for cancer. The project will also involve TCR target discovery through GigaGen’s proprietary recombinant TCR functional screening technology, as well as full transcriptome RNA sequencing of the tumors.
“GigaGen offers a way of rapidly screening our clinically validated and relevant set of cytotoxic T cells found in TIL. This is a unique and rapid way of extracting clinically useful TCRs that other types of collaborations just can’t deliver,” said Robert Hawkins, CEO of Cellular Therapeutics Ltd.
“Cellular Therapeutics Ltd is one of only a few groups in the world that has achieved strong clinical responses with TIL therapies. They are also leaders in manufacturing and validation of engineered adoptive T cell therapies. We are excited to bring our unique TCR drug discovery platform to bear on T cells that they provide us,” said David Johnson, PhD, CEO of GigaGen. “With this collaboration we are closer to successfully achieving our goal of developing innovative, curative therapies based on immune cells from cancer patients.”
The collaboration starts immediately.
About GigaGen
GigaGen is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibody and T cell therapies derived from immune repertoires. GigaGen’s technology platform captures the genetic make-up of the entire human immune repertoire, capturing and genetically analyzing B and T cells at a rate of millions per hour, while simultaneously identifying their antigen and protein binders. Therapies derived from natural immune repertoires mimic the body's natural immune system - they can be more effective, can have fewer side effects, and can have faster development timelines than those developed from traditional methods. GigaGen has drug discovery projects with several pharmaceutical companies in addition to its own pipeline for development of the first recombinant intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and immuno-oncology therapies. For more information visit http://www.gigagen.com.
About Cellular Therapeutics Ltd
Cellular Therapeutics Ltd (CTL) is a specialist cell therapy company focusing on the development of T-cell therapies to treat cancer. The company has extensive knowledge of Tumour Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) technology, which is being successfully employed as a personalised cell therapy product for the treatment of advanced melanoma In Europe and is being developed by CTL in Melanoma and other indications as a marketed medicine. CTL also has a pipeline to develop second / third generation products based on TIL. CTL’s state-of-the-art clinical grade (GMP) cell therapy manufacturing facilities licensed by the MHRA for production of cell therapies which is being used in clinical trials for CAR-T and TCR based cancer cell therapy across the whole of Europe. Focusing on T cell therapy and immuno-oncology, it is currently producing a range of T cell technologies within and outside of clinical trials, both alone and in collaboration with other leading cancer cell therapy companies. For more information visit: http://www.cellulartherapeutics.co.uk
Jennifer Keller, GigaGen, Inc., +1 650 799 1570, [email protected]
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