We are conducting a research collaboration with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center led by Michel Sadelain, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Cell Engineering and the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, for the development of iPSC-derived T-cell immunotherapies. Through this collaboration, we have sought to leapfrog the current patient-specific approach to T-cell immunotherapy by uniting the research, preclinical and manufacturing activities of the two groups. We are developing FT819, an off-the-shelf CAR T-cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal engineered master iPSC line with complete elimination of TCR expression and a novel 1XX CAR targeting CD19 inserted into the TRAC locus, under our collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Together, these features are intended to induce antigen-specific cytotoxicity, enhance CAR activity through TRAC-regulated expression and completely eliminate TCR expression to mitigate GvHD.
