Texas A&M Innovation has completed an exclusive license agreement with Cellula BioPharma Inc., a Texas-based startup company developing a novel CAR-T cell therapy platform for treating solid tumors. Cellula BioPharma, Inc. was co-founded by Dr. Magnus Höök and Dr. Xiaotong Song from the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology to commercialize technology developed in Song’s lab.
While cures for many malignant cancers have improved, there is an absence of effective treatments for patients diagnosed with advanced stage solid tumors. CAR-T cell therapy has been used to selectively kill malignant cells but shows moderate antitumor activity for solid tumors in clinical studies due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Lead inventor Dr. Xiaotong Song, Research Associate Professor of the Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, has developed a groundbreaking CAR-T cell therapy that has the potential to overcome immunosuppression in tumors by delivering adenosine deaminase (ADA)-expressed CAR-T cells. These genetically engineered CAR-T cells can selectively kill malignant cells while reducing short and long-term side effects. Early testing of this technology has shown promising results in its ability to treat multiple malignant tumors and other types of cancer.
Now under license to the A&M System’s intellectual property filed for this technology, Cellula is fundraising to support the further development of the technology and plans to partner with clinicians to design clinical studies for liver and breast cancer to start. The company has prepared an INTERACT package for HER2-MRCAR for NSCLC and will soon request their first meeting with the FDA.
