Problem
Almost 50% of people will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. Approximately 90% of adult human cancers are solid tumors. Solid tumors, such as those found in the breast, lung, or colon, pose a significant health challenge due to their ability to grow and spread rapidly, often requiring complex treatment strategies.
Current Approaches
Chimeric antigen T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is an emerging immunotherapy that reprograms a patient's own T-cells to target cancer cells based on their expressed antigens. CAR-T cell therapy has proved effective in blood cancers, but unsucessful in tackling solid tumors. Recently, synthetic biology approaches to create CAR-T cells secreting cytokines aim to increase T-cell activation in fighting cancer. However, these strategies neglect the potential challenge of cytokine release syndrome (CRS), a condition that can lead to deadly complications.
Solution
We developed ICARUS, Intelligent CAR Upregulation System, a platform that allows for enhanced T cell activation, mitigation of CRS and ultimately, a more cost-effective solution to treat a diverse set of solid and bloodborne tumors.
References
- Siegel, R. L., Miller, K. D., Wagle, N. S. & Jemal, A. Cancer statistics, 2023. CA Cancer J Clin 73, 17-48 (2023). https://doi.org:10.3322/caac.21763
- Allen, G. M. et al. Synthetic cytokine circuits that drive T cells into immune-excluded tumors. Science 378, eaba1624 (2022). https://doi.org:10.1126/science.aba1624
- Sterner, R.C., Sterner, R.M. CAR-T cell therapy: current limitations and potential strategies. *Blood Cancer J.* **11**, 69 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41408-021-00459-7