On May 4, 2022 Umoja Biopharma, Inc., an immuno-oncology company pioneering off-the-shelf, integrated therapeutics that reprogram immune cells in vivo for patients with solid and hematologic malignancies, reported that it will have an oral presentation at the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) Annual Meeting 2022, to be held May 4-7, 2022 in San Francisco, California (Press release, Umoja Biopharma, MAY 4, 2022, View Source [SID1234613506]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

On Friday, May 6th, Dave Vereide, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Umoja Biopharma, will give an oral presentation titled "A synthetic cytokine receptor platform for producing cytotoxic innate lymphocytes as ‘off-the-shelf’ cancer therapeutics." The presentation will highlight Umoja’s rapamycin-activated cytokine receptor (RACR) platform which seeks to address current challenges in the cellular therapy space. Current approaches for differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into therapeutic immune cell types often requires expensive exogenous gamma-chain cytokines for expansion and survival, and often, the presence of feeder cells. The RACR platform permits the production of immune effector cells, termed RACR-induced cytotoxic innate lymphocytes (iCILs), in the absence of exogenous cytokines and feeder cells by genetically modifying iPSC-derived progenitor cells to express the RACR synthetic cytokine receptor. A synthetic small molecule ligand then binds RACR to drive the differentiation and expansion of the iCILs. RACR technology can be employed in both a manufacturing setting to generate iCILs and in vivo to enable the selective expansion and survival of iCILs.

"iPSCs are an excellent source of renewable, modifiable, and scalable material for cell therapy manufacturing, yet several limitations exist with the current manufacturing processes for differentiating iPSCs into therapeutic cell types, including the need for exogenous growth factors and feeder cells." said Andy Scharenberg, M.D., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Umoja. "At Umoja we are excited about our RACR-iCIL iPSC platform and its capacity to generate immune effector cells in the absence of these limitations. Due to the selective growth advantage provided by our RACR platform, a highly pure iCIL population can be produced during manufacturing. We are evaluating iCILs in pre-clinical studies to assess their in vivo anti-tumor activity, and are optimistic about their potential for development as "off-the-shelf" cell therapies for diverse hematologic malignancies and solid tumors."

Presentation details:

Presentation Title: A synthetic cytokine receptor platform for producing cytotoxic innate lymphocytes as ‘off-the-shelf’ cancer therapeutics
Presenting Author: Dave Vereide, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Umoja Biopharma
Abstract Number: 44
Oral Presentation Session: Gene Editing/Gene Therapies
Oral Presentation Date, Time: Friday May 6, 2022; 4:45-5:45 p.m. PT
Poster Presentation Session: Poster Networking Reception 2
Poster Presentation Date, Time: Thursday May 5, 2022; 5:45-7:15 p.m. PT