Remotely controlled T cell therapies for cancer

Remote control of T cell therapy-induced cancer inflammation

Cell Control, a spin-off from the NKI-AVL, is a cell therapy platform company, that will use its proprietary Rheostat technology to engineer novel adoptive cell therapies to deliver improved outcomes for patients.

Adoptive T cell therapies have shown substantial activity in a number of human malignancies. In particular, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has shown profound clinical activity in hematological malignancies, leading to a number of drug approvals.  In solid cancer, the clinical activity of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy in melanoma has been well established, leading to late stage clinical studies. However, the impact of CAR-T and TIL therapy in other solid malignancies is thus far modest.

The central thesis of this project is that next generation adoptive T cell therapies should not merely involve the infusion of tumor-reactive T cells, but that such T cell products should be endowed with the capacity to induce intra-tumoral inflammation in a precisely controlled manner to increase anti-tumor activity. When successful, the results of this study will have wide ranging implications for the treatment of solid tumors.

The main deliverables of this project will be remotely controlled cell therapy candidates controlling local inflammation in solid tumors, including cervical, ovarian, lung, and colon cancer, datatests describing the in vitro and in vivo characterization of these cell therapy product candidates, and demonstration of manufacturing of such cells using clinically relavant production methods at scale.

Summary
The central thesis of this project is that next generation adoptive T cell therapies should be endowed with the capacity to induce intra-tumoral inflammation in a precisely controlled manner to thereby increase anti-tumor activity. This project aims to achieve this through remote control of T cell activity using an approved and orally available drug.
Technology Readiness Level (TRL)
3 - 5
Time period
36 months
Partners
Cell Control
NKI AVL