iPSC-based Cell Therapies for Oncology

Cancer is hallmarked by the uncontrolled growth and multiplication and spread of cells within the body, ungoverned by the usual mechanisms of homeostasis maintained by healthy cells. It remains one of the leading global causes of mortality and morbidity despite continual advances in therapeutic treatments in oncology¹.

An impressive success in the fight against cancer is the clinical use of autologous CAR-T cell therapies against blood malignancies. However, broader challenges remain in translating the same efficacy into patients with solid tumors² as well as broadening patient access to cell therapies.

Our goal is to develop a portfolio of iPSC-derived effector immune cells to both bridge this solid tumor efficacy gap and providing timely and cost-effective access to cell therapy treatments.

Our scientific approach pairs our industry-leading iPSC technology informed by an indication's specific cancer biology which will allow us provide a highly efficacious treatment in a timely "on-demand" manner.

Combining iPSC-derived immune effector cells with different targeting modalities and gene-edits facilitates the bespoke tailoring of therapies to target specific cancer indications. Evotec provides all technologies and know-how available to combine iPSC cells with different targeting modalities for target cell specificity, depending on scientific rationale and partner needs. For example, we have successfully engineered a SIRPα knock-out (KO) into our iPSC-derived macrophages (iMACs) to block a common escape mechanism by the tumor while exploring additional gene edits to keep our cells potent in suppressive tumor environments.

It is our ambition to expand access to cell therapies for patients with cancer by providing cryopreserved, off-the-shelf cell products uniquely targeted for specific indications. 

We believe that cell therapy will continue to be a vital part of the arsenal to fight cancer, and so we are building a portfolio of iPSC-derived immune cell-based product candidates.

Our oncology cell therapy portfolio consists of iPSC-derived immune cells including αβT cells, NK cells, and macrophages.

1) Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Global Burden of Disease (2019)

2) Sterner, R.C. and Sterner, R.M., 2021. CAR-T cell therapy: current limitations and potential strategies. Blood cancer journal, 11(4)