Please are you able to introduce your self and inform us just a little bit about your analysis {and professional} background?
Hello, I’m Olivier Negre, Chief Scientific Officer at Good Immune since 2020. I now have over 20 years of expertise in biotherapy and gene remedy. My journey started engaged on recombinant vaccines at Bioprotein Applied sciences. In 2000, I joined bluebird bio, the place I labored for 14 years on the event of the primary authorized gene remedy for beta-thalassemia.
All through my profession, I’ve transitioned from a Senior Scientist in France to Director of Translational Analysis within the USA. I then returned to France to discovered Biotherapy Companions and lead Good Immune’s ProTcell platform preclinical growth as Chief Scientific Officer. I’m additionally a board member of the French Society of Gene and Cell Remedy.
Picture Credit score: Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock.com
You may be presenting a seminar on the seventh Annual Allogeneic Cell Therapies Summit later this yr. Are you able to give us a sneak peek at what you’ll be discussing throughout your discuss?
I’m trying ahead to introducing our ProTcell remedy platform’s current advances and, extra exactly, our efforts to keep up efficient and various T-cell receptors (TCR) whereas guaranteeing security. Our analysis has proven that our allogeneic T-cell progenitors, as soon as educated within the host thymus, restore a polyclonal T-cell compartment. TCR range is essential to preventing infections and eliminating most cancers cells expressing neoantigens.
What are some key insights out of your preclinical research on the security of ProTcells?
With out spoiling the presentation, I can say that we’ve not noticed any product-related toxicity reminiscent of GvHD. A protecting impact in opposition to tumor problem has been noticed in our preclinical fashions.
Why is the thymus an essential issue on this remedy, and the way does it affect T-cell growth?
Our cell remedy SMART101 (allogeneic blood stem cell-derived T-cell progenitors) is designed to be empowered and customized by the affected person’s thymus. The thymus selects and educates immature T-cells, turning solely the perfect candidates into totally practical naive T-cells, able to defend the physique in opposition to malignant and contaminated cells. Curiously, the thymus naturally expands ProTcell-derived T-cell populations by roughly 1,000-fold. We wish to say that within the thymus we belief!
What are the potential medical purposes of ProTcells, and what makes them notably promising?
There are quite a few explanation why our method can handle medical wants associated to T-cell dysfunction. Our technique is to make use of allogeneic ProTcells and harness thymic schooling to revive the immune system with a brand new, competent, and long-lasting T-cell drive. It has enormous potential for purposes in hematology post-transplant, as we’re doing now in high-risk acute leukemia, but additionally in different cancers, immune growing older, and infectious illnesses like AIDS. We’re working to genetically engineer our ProTcells, to generate long-lasting, self-tolerant, and focused therapies like HIV-resistant T-cells or CAR ProTcells.
Why have we been seeing headwinds within the allogeneic cell therapies house for the previous a number of years?
The sector is confronted with obstacles which might be tending to be resolved partly and progressively: security, long-term efficacy (vs cell exhaustion), rejection, and manufacturing complexity. Good Immune is likely one of the gamers within the subject aiming at fixing all these hurdles to supply off-the-shelf, accessible T-cell therapies.
What are probably the most thrilling developments you’re seeing within the allogeneic cell therapies house which might be turning the sphere round?
An growing variety of mobile immunotherapies is reaching the market (CAR-T, TCR-T, TILs) however they’re largely autologous and are going through a number of limitations reminiscent of the necessity to manufacture a batch for every affected person, the complexity of a round provide chain, the associated fee per dose and the poor high quality of affected person cells when harvested after a number of rounds of chemotherapy …
The allogeneic method can circumvent these limitations and is made extra possible by a number of enhancements:
1) New strategies of gene enhancing decreasing the danger of off-target impact and genomic instability
2) The event of iPS cell strains for the nearly illimited quantity of beginning materials
3) The refined collection of donor cells
4) Epigenetic and metabolic issues
5) Using T-cell progenitors to keep up the TCR whereas avoiding GvHD
The place do you see the allogeneic cell remedy house within the subsequent 5 years?
The approval of Ebvallo, the primary licensed allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy, paved the way in which for brand new merchandise. Poseida Therapeutics confirmed that allogeneic CAR-T therapies can have robust traction for pharma with the settlement to be acquired by Roche Holdings for $1.5 billion. Within the coming years, the sphere of mobile immunotherapy ought to turn out to be mature, and large-scale manufacturing of high-quality, inexpensive merchandise ought to enable the therapy of extra sufferers within the first line. Cell banks of allogeneic off-the-shelf merchandise ought to take part on this new space for mobile therapies.
What are you trying ahead to most on the seventh Annual Allogeneic Cell Therapies Summit?
The Annual Allogeneic Cell Therapies summit is the place to be to fulfill with specialists within the subject and study the newest advances in allogeneic therapies. I’m trying ahead to attending the business leaders’ hearth chat, which can focus on how you can obtain allogeneic product success by aligning innovation with investor expectations. The panel dialogue scheduled for the second day will likely be notably attention-grabbing since guaranteeing long-lasting therapeutic responses is difficult for allogeneic therapies. I will likely be eager to debate strategic affected person choice by HLA matching.
What are the following steps for you and your analysis? Do you’ve got any thrilling tasks arising?
I will say extra concerning the evolution of our ProTcell packages through the convention. Our focus within the coming months would be the engineering of CAR ProTcells and the experiments supporting future medical trials in strong tumors.
The place can readers discover extra info?
About Olivier
Olivier earned an engineering diploma in biotechnology from ENSTBB and a PhD in cell and molecular biology from Paris Diderot College. He has been working for greater than 20 years within the subject of biotherapies together with the manufacturing of recombinant proteins with BioProtein Applied sciences and gene remedy packages at bluebird bio each in France and within the USA. Olivier is a board member of the French Society of Gene and Cell Remedy, co-president of the assume tank Gene & Cell Remedy Institute, co-founder of Biotherapy Companions and at present CSO at Good Immune.
