Novel Chimeric Antigen Receptor Design Technology for CAR-T Cells Published and Licensed Exclusively to Cellinfinity Bio

• Engineering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) with intracellular fragment of CTLA-4 enhances CAR-T antitumor activity
• Cellinfinity has exclusively licensed the CTLA-4 tail technology for development of next-generation gene-enhanced cell therapy

WEST HAVEN, Conn. & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cellinfinity Bio, a privately held biotechnology company developing first/best-in-class cell therapy products against solid tumors and other diseases, today announced the publication of a novel CAR enhancement, the addition of CTLA-4 intracellular domain to improve anti-tumor CAR-T activity. This technology is published in Nature Immunology on July 27. Trogocytosis is a process where cancer antigens are transferred onto immune cells, including T-cells; if the cancer antigen is a target of CAR-Ts, this results in CAR-Ts killing each other or fratricide. The addition of intracellular domain of CTLA-4 prevented trogocytosis and resulted in improved CAR-T survival, including maintenance of central memory T-cells and increased T-cell persistence – all leading to stronger anti-tumor efficacy. Cellinfinity Bio has an exclusive license of the published CTLA-4 tail technology from Yale University and Professor Sidi Chen’s lab, Founder of Cellinfinity Bio and Associate Professor of Genetics, Yale University.

“Trogocytosis and fratricide substantially limit current CAR-T cell therapy response. We found a portion of CTLA-4 intracellular domain when fused onto CAR sequence optimizes CAR-T function and results in low trogocytosis, greater durability, and more potent in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor efficacy,” said Sidi Chen. “Furthermore, the simple addition of CTLA-4 tail onto CARs has potential to improve CAR-Ts against diverse targets.”

“Cellinfinity has identified several important gene enhancements and CAR modifications that improve anti-tumor activity of adoptive cell therapy,” added Premal Patel, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Cellinfinity Bio. “We intend to evaluate this CTLA-4 tail technology across diverse next generation of CAR-Ts targeting variety of cancers.” Cellinfinity holds exclusive rights to the CTLA-4 tail technology, as well as exclusive license to other novel cell evolution technologies from the Chen lab at Yale University, that allow whole-genome gain-of-function and loss-of-function genetic screens.

About Cellinfinity Bio

Cellinfinity Bio is a privately-owned company that is focused on elevating the current standards of cell therapy against solid tumors and other diseases. By leveraging proprietary, directed evolution of cells, Cellinfinity identifies genetic modifications and CAR constructs that substantially improve engineered T-cell and NK-cell function against solid tumors. Cellinfinity develops both first-in-class and best-in-class cell therapy products with the goal to benefit diverse patient populations with unmet medical needs.

Contacts

Premal Patel

[email protected]