On May 2, 2022 Hoffmann-La Roche reported to invite you to an analyst event on Tuesday, 26 July 2022, to discuss Roche’s Diagnostics Division, in conjunction with the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Annual Scientific Meeting and Clinical Lab Exposition in Chicago, Illinois (July 24-28, 2022) (Press release, Hoffmann-La Roche, MAY 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234613283]).

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On May 2, 2022 LUMICKS, a leading life science tools company developing instruments and consumables for dynamic single-molecule and cell avidity analysis, reported the publication in Nature of a landmark study, led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Press release, LUMICKS, MAY 2, 2022, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nature-paper-study-marcela-maus-solid-tumor-evasion [SID1234613282]).

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The study demonstrates the power of LUMICKS’ z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer to measure cell avidity, a crucial biomarker for understanding immune cell function and for providing superior predictive information of therapeutic efficacy. The Nature paper (April 16, 2022), entitled "CAR T cell killing requires the IFNγR pathway in solid but not liquid tumors" was published by a pioneering team of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell researchers led by Dr. Marcela V. Maus, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

While CAR T cell therapies have shown great potential in combating blood-related cancers, the more prevalent solid tumors have been far less responsive to this therapeutic approach. This study exposes a groundbreaking discovery about the mechanism solid tumors use to evade CAR T cell therapies. Solid tumor cells avoid CAR T cell killing by down-regulating the adhesion strength or "cell avidity" between the effector and its target, which is an essential step in successfully clearing a solid tumor. Measuring cell avidity should now be an integral part of CAR T cell development programs, to help reduce failure rates of solid tumor clinical trials.

The LUMICKS z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer showed that loss of interferon-γ receptor (IFNγR) signaling decreased cell binding avidity between CAR T cells and their target solid tumor cells. The insufficient cell avidity was determined to be the mechanism underpinning poor in vivo therapeutic behavior of CAR T cells, identifying "avidity escape" as a new avoidance mechanism used by solid tumors.

"We are excited about the publication of this seminal paper in Nature that clearly demonstrates the technological and scientific power of measuring cell avidity with the z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer, opening the door to new innovations in cell therapy development," said Andrea Candelli, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of LUMICKS. "We are at a watershed moment in the CAR T cell field, and we are excited to empower therapeutic developers with novel insights for successfully harnessing the power of the immune system to treat diseases."

The z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer measures cell avidity, or level of binding, between immune cells and their targets, enabling researchers to identify the most potent immunotherapeutic effector cells. This unique technology provides predictive, reproducible, and fast results at single-cell resolution. LUMICKS’ cell avidity solutions use acoustics to measure forces and interactions between cells, with the goal of such research enabling the shortening the drug development cycle of immunotherapies and reducing failure rates in clinical trials. First introduced in 2020, the z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer is being rapidly adopted by academic and biopharma laboratories around the world.

About the Study Findings

This study found that, as opposed to blood-based cancers, the loss of genes in the interferon-γ receptor (IFNγR) signaling pathway rendered glioblastoma and other solid tumors more resistant to killing by CAR T cells both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, the loss of IFNγR1 in glioblastoma cells reduced overall CAR T duration of cell binding and cell avidity, as measured using LUMICKS z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer. IFNγR signaling was found to regulate critical surface proteins responsible for sufficient adhesion of CAR T cells to mediate therapeutic response through productive cytotoxicity.

This work demonstrates that blood-based tumors and solid tumors differ in their interaction strength with CAR T cells. The study suggests that enhancing binding interactions between T cells and tumor cells may yield improved responses for next generation drugs, especially through new molecular designs that optimize cell avidity strength. This highlights the power of cell avidity measurements as a crucial biomarker for understanding immune cell function and mechanistic guide for successful CAR T engineering.

On May 2, 2022 The board of directors of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) reported that it has declared a dividend for the second quarter of 2022 of $0.98 per share on outstanding common stock (Press release, Eli Lilly, MAY 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234613281]).

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The dividend is payable on June 10, 2022 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 16, 2022.

On May 2, 2022 Scribe Therapeutics Inc., a molecular engineering company creating the most advanced technologies for CRISPR-based genetic medicine, reported Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq:BIIB) has exercised an option for an additional disease target in gene therapy as part of the companies’ ongoing research collaboration to develop and commercialize CRISPR-based medicines (Press release, Scribe Therapeutics, MAY 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234613280]). The expanded collaboration further validates Scribe’s position as a leading organization driving the development of novel CRISPR-based therapeutics that treat the underlying cause of disease.

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"At Scribe, we continue to push the boundaries of molecular engineering to fulfill the profound promise of CRISPR-based therapeutics and are pleased to have our collaborators at Biogen continue to support and expand our collaboration towards this goal," said Benjamin Oakes, CEO and co-founder of Scribe Therapeutics. "Scribe’s custom-designed CRISPR platforms, molecules, and delivery technologies are overcoming the technical hurdles that challenge many genetic targeting technologies and we are thrilled to continue to drive forward a new era of truly transformative genetic medicines."

In 2020, Scribe announced their research collaboration with Biogen to develop and commercialize CRISPR-based therapies that address an underlying genetic cause of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

On May 2, 2022 NKGen Biotech Inc., a biotechnology company harnessing the power of the body’s immune system through the development of Natural Killer (NK) cell therapies, reported that three abstracts with clinical information on its NK cell therapy (SNK01) were accepted for presentation at the upcoming 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting taking place June 3-7, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois (Press release, NKMax America, MAY 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234613279]).

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Details of the presentations are as follows:

Poster Discussion

Title: Interim Analysis of a Phase I Study of SNK01 (Autologous Non-genetically Modified Natural Killer Cells with Enhanced Cytotoxicity) and Avelumab in Advanced Refractory Sarcoma

Authors: Sant P. Chawla, Victoria S. Chua, Erlinda Maria Gordon, Ted T. Kim, William Feske, Brenda L. Gibson, Paul Y. Chang, Debra Robinson, Paul Y. Song

Session Type: Poster Discussion

Session Title: Sarcoma

Session Date and Time: Sunday, June 5, 2022, 8:00 am – 11:00 am; Discussion 11:30 am – 1:00 pm CDT

Poster Presentation

Title: Preliminary Analysis of a Phase I Study of SNK01 (Autologous Non-genetically Modified Natural Killer Cells with Enhanced Cytotoxicity) Monotherapy in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors

Authors: Victoria S. Chua, Sant P. Chawla, Erlinda Maria Gordon, Ted T. Kim, Simranjit Sekhon, William Feske, Lucia Hui, Brenda L. Gibson, Paul Y. Chang, Debra Robinson, Paul Y. Song

Session Type: Poster Presentation

Session Title: Developmental Therapeutics – Immunotherapy

Session Date and Time: Sunday, June 5, 2022, 8:00 am – 11:00 am CDT

Poster Presentation

Title: The combination of CD16A/EGFR innate cell engager, AFM24, with SNK01 autologous natural killer cells in patients with advanced solid tumors

Authors: Anthony B. El-Khoueiry, Paul Y. Song, Jennifer Rubel, Dorna Y. Pourang, Christa Raab, Gabriele Hintzen, Michael Emig, Pilar Nava-Parada

Session Type: Poster Presentation

Session Title: Developmental Therapeutics – Immunotherapy

Session Date and Time: Sunday, June 5, 2022, 8:00 am – 11:00 am CDT

Abstracts will be released to the public on Friday, May 26, 2022 at 5:00 pm EDT.

More information on the 2022 ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting and related posters sessions can be found at www.asco.org