LIfT BioSciences Awarded Innovate UK Grant to Accelerate Product Development of New IMAN Cell Therapy Variants
May 16 2024 - 2:00AM
LIfT BioSciences Awarded Innovate UK Grant to Accelerate Product
Development of New IMAN Cell Therapy Variants
LIfT BioSciences Awarded Innovate UK
Grant to Accelerate Product Development of New IMAN Cell Therapy
Variants
- Groundbreaking
in vivo studies will be progressed to
explore the impact of IMAN cell therapies in solid tumour and
immunology models uniquely available at the Saeb-Parsy Lab at the
University of Cambridge
London, 16 May 2024 – LIfT
BioSciences, (‘LIfT’ or ‘the Company’), a rapidly emerging biotech
company about to start clinical trials for its first-in-class
allogeneic innate cell therapy, today announces it has been awarded
a grant of over one million pounds from Innovate UK, the UK’s
innovation agency. The grant will enable LIfT to show for the first
time, how its immunomodulatory alpha neutrophils (IMANs) recruit
immune cells in vivo to attack tumours using a new type of
translational humanised mouse model suitable for human neutrophils.
The new in vivo model will enable LIfT to rapidly assess the
potential of different, new, product variants, tumour types and
combination therapies prior to putting them into path to the
clinic, thereby accelerating the development of LIfT’s IMAN cell
therapy pipeline for the treatment of solid tumours and auto-immune
disease.
The Innovate UK grant will fund a unique,
world-class industry-academia collaboration between LIfT
Biosciences and the world-leading Saeb-Parsy Lab (SPL) at the
University of Cambridge, with the aim of investigating the impact
of LIfT’s IMAN cell therapies in solid tumour and immunology
indications using the cutting-edge humanised in vivo model systems
developed at SPL.
SPL has developed and optimized cutting-edge
tumour-bearing humanised mice which are essential for true
modelling of IMAN safety and efficacy. Data generated from this
collaboration will be integral for the better understanding of the
mechanism of action (MoA) of IMANs and its potential for
combination approaches in solid tumours and immunology, enabling
LIfT to investigate its immunomodulatory and cytotoxic
mechanisms.
IMANs’ ability to modulate the hostile solid
tumour microenvironment (TME) is fundamental to their MoA. Standard
in vivo tumour models in immunodeficient mice lack the necessary
human immune system components to investigate recipient
immunomodulation, underplaying the effectiveness of cell therapy
modalities by only assaying direct cytotoxicity. SPL's humanised
models use xenografted patient-derived tumour material (PDX), which
allows a closer approximation of tumour architecture and component
subsets that comprise the solid TME, more closely representing the
modelling of the TME as would be encountered during human clinical
trials. Of particular interest is how IMANs recruit and activate
T-Cells and NK cells, and work with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) on
the Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity (ADCC) pathway to
deliver antitumor antibody efficacy through lethal
trogocytosis.
Alex Blyth, Chief Executive Officer of
LIfT BioSciences, commented: “The awarding of this grant
from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, is an exciting step
that will help expedite our pipeline of new products and their
combinations into the clinic and will improve outcomes through the
foresight it provides. Current standard mouse models do not have
the right chemokines and growth factors to support human
neutrophils optimally. Tumour-bearing humanised mice that have been
adapted to support human neutrophils are therefore very useful for
more accurate modelling of the effects of neutrophils for early
insights into what we might see in human trials. We will now
conduct groundbreaking in vivo studies to explore the impact of
IMAN cell therapies in solid tumour and immunology models uniquely
available at the Saeb-Parsy Lab.”
Kourosh Saeb-Parsy, Professor of
Transplantation at the Department of Surgery at University of
Cambridge, commented: “LIfT’s IMANs have a unique
multimodal mechanism of action which suggests they have the
potential to overcome the limitations of current immunotherapies in
solid tumours. Our group has developed and optimized
cutting-edge humanised in vivo solid tumour models which are
particularly suited for investigation of therapeutics with
immunomodulatory properties, such as IMANs. We are very
excited to be working with LIfT on this project and are grateful
for this funding from Innovate UK.”
LIfT is developing its ground-breaking patented
IMAN product as an allogeneic cell therapy for the treatment of
solid tumours. IMANs have the capacity to directly kill tumour
cells in an innate antigen-independent manner while recruiting and
immunomodulating host immune effector cells such as T cells and NK
cells, to give a durable response and long-lasting anti-tumour
immunity. LIfT’s IMANs are generated using LIfT’s proprietary
Neutrophil-based Leukocyte Infusion Therapy (N-LIfT) platform, with
future iPSC-derived and gene engineered products in the
pipeline.
-End-
About LIfT BioSciences
LIfT BioSciences is a biotech bringing to market
a first-in-class alpha neutrophil cell therapy that overcomes the
limitations of current therapies in solid tumours by destroying
tumours both directly and indirectly. LIfT’s Immunomodulatory Alpha
Neutrophils (IMANs) turn the tumour microenvironment against the
tumour as they recruit the rest of the immune system to destroy the
tumour to give a durable response and lasting immunity. The
patented breakthrough N-LIfT platform is produced from a patented
process using exceptional stem cells (iPSC or HSC), a proprietary
enhancement media and genetic engineering (e.g. CARs).
LIfT is working towards expanding LIfT's
immunomodulatory therapy approach into other therapeutical
areas such as immunology, neurology and antimicrobial resistance.
LIfT is committed to delivering complete remission in high unmet
need solid tumours before the decade is out. LIfT BioSciences was
founded by Alex Blyth following the death of his mother to
pancreatic cancer. See www.liftbiosciences.com.
Further information
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Investors & Media: |
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Alex BlythICR ConsiliumMary-Jane Elliott, Namrata Taak, Lindsey
Neville |
+44 (0)7718 759116 |
ablyth@LIfTBioSciences.comliftbiosciences@consilium-comms.com |