IMMUNOSCAPE, SINGAPORE’S EDDC JOIN FORCES TO DEVELOP OFF-THE-SHELF TCR-BASED MOLECULES

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (Bernama) -- ImmunoScape, a biotechnology company focused on next-generation T Cell receptor (TCR)-based immunotherapies, announced a partnership with the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), Singapore's national platform for drug discovery and development hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), which is set to commence in early next year.

“The benefit of off-the-shelf TCR molecules is that they do not require engineering and manufacturing of the patients’ own T cells, which can make them accessible to a much broader patient population and further results in much lower production costs and shorter timelines for the patients to receive the drug.

“By combining the power of our machine learning-augmented TCR discovery platform with EDDC’s broad expertise in the design of multifunctional constructs, we will aim to rapidly develop novel off-the-shelf TCR-based bispecific molecules that could overcome widespread challenges in cell therapy approaches against solid tumours,” said ImmunoScape Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Choon-Peng Ng.

Meanwhile, EDDC CEO, Damian O'Connell said the company is thrilled to join forces with ImmunoScape to design and produce TCR-based bispecific constructs that could lead to more effective treatments for solid tumours.

“Our deep expertise in progressing projects from discovery and production of antibodies to the design of multifunctional constructs, paired with ImmunoScape’s TCR discovery platform and library of tumour-specific TCRs, will allow us to jointly develop molecules for sensitive and effective tumour targeting in a T cell-independent manner,” he said.

In this new partnership, ImmunoScape will leverage its catalogue of highly potent tumour-specific TCR candidates for the joint development of innovative off-the-shelf TCR-based bispecific molecules with EDDC, according to the company in a statement.

These molecules contain two distinct binding sites and are engineered to bind and activate T cells, redirecting them towards tumour sites for interaction with cells expressing the unique tumour-specific antigen through the TCR.

This approach enables the patient's own T cell repertoire to selectively eliminate cancer cells. EDDC will apply its expertise in therapeutic protein design and antibody engineering to develop these novel TCR-based bispecific molecules.

ImmunoScape’s core antigen-specific T cell immune profiling technology was developed at A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network and is exclusively licensed from A*STAR.

Since its spinout from A*STAR in 2016, ImmunoScape has developed a cutting-edge, high-throughput, TCR discovery platform that produces a broad and emerging portfolio of novel, safe, and efficacious TCRs against solid tumours.

-- BERNAMA