{"id":28520,"date":"2016-02-16T14:57:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T19:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=28520"},"modified":"2016-06-11T12:14:56","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T16:14:56","slug":"biotech-reviewing-stanford-immuno-stem-cell-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=28520","title":{"rendered":"Biotech Reviewing Stanford Immuno-Stem Cell Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Davis (Stanford University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

16 February 2016. A biotechnology company in Los Angeles is evaluating a technology developed at Stanford University for transferring DNA of immune system cells to a patient’s own stem cells to produce immunotherapies for treating cancer. The agreement with Stanford gives ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd.<\/a> an option to license the technology from the lab of immunologist Mark Davis<\/a>, but financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed.<\/p>\n

Davis and colleagues at Stanford University’s medical school study structural and biochemical factors that enable T-cell receptors<\/a> — molecules found on the surface of T-cells, white blood cells in the immune system — to recognize antigens, proteins that generate an immune response by T-cells. The particular technology of interest to ImmunoCellular isolates T-cell receptors, which are then genetically sequenced to produce DNA that can be introduced into hematopoietic or blood-forming stem cells<\/a> for transformation into healthy immune-system cells.<\/p>\n

ImmunoCellular produces therapeutic vaccines that harness the immune system to treat cancer. Its main technology platform engineers dendritic or antigen-presenting cells<\/a> that induce an immune response from T-cells. The company’s pipeline<\/a> has treatments for newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, now in clinical trials, and a dendritic cell treatment for ovarian cancer ready for clinical trials.<\/p>\n

A new ImmunoCellular program<\/a> aims to use hematopoietic stem cells to create antigen-specific T-cell therapies, which the Davis lab technology would support. If the evaluation leads to licensing the technology from Stanford, the company envisions harvesting a cancer patient’s hematopoietic stem cells, and engineering the cells to include DNA from T-cell receptors, then transforming into T-cells in sufficient quantities for transplant back to the patient. The transformed T-cells would be pre-programed to target, bind to, and destroy specific cancer cells.<\/p>\n

Steven Swanson, ImmunoCellular’s vice president for research, calls the option deal with Stanford “a major milestone” for advancing the company’s pipeline of immunotherapies. Swanson says in a company statement, “Our strategy is to integrate complementary breakthrough technologies by using modified stem cells from the patient to develop antigen-specific killer T-cells that can directly attack and potentially eradicate tumors and prevent their recurrence.”<\/p>\n

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