Developing future generations of T cell therapies that are designed to offer cancer patients substantial benefits: Autolus

Your immune system works by keeping track of all the substances normally found in your body. Any new substance the immune system doesn't recognize raises an alarm, causing the immune system to attack it. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a promising new way to get immune cells called T cells (a type of white blood cell) to fight cancer by changing them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapies are sometimes talked about as a type of gene or cell therapy, or immune effect cell therapy.

The immune system recognizes foreign substances in the body by finding proteins called antigens on the surface of those cells. Immune cells called T cells have their own proteins called receptors that attach to foreign antigens and help trigger other parts of the immune system to destroy the foreign substance. The relationship between antigens and immune receptors is like a lock and key. Just as every lock can only be opened with the right key, each foreign antigen has a unique immune receptor that is able to bind to it. Cancer cells also have antigens, but if your immune cells do not have the right receptors, they cannot attach to the antigens and help destroy the cancer cells.

Autolus is a leader in T-cell programming and manufacturing technology. Autolus is at the forefront of a revolution in cancer treatment. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies have been shown to be effective in some haematological malignancies and may have wide applications as a cancer treatment, with the potential for cure in some patients. Autolus is committed to bringing life-changing treatments to cancer patients by reprogramming their own T-cells to combat the treatment of haematological malignancies and solid tumors. It believes its programmed T cell therapies have the potential to offer cancer patients substantial benefits over the existing standard of care, including the potential for cure in some patients.

Revolutionary T-cell therapies designed by Autolus

Personalized treatment: The company’s next-generation T cell programming technologies allow us to tailor therapies to address the specific cancer are targeting and introduce new programming modules into a patient’s T cells to give those T cells improved properties to better recognize cancer cells and overcome fundamental cancer defence mechanisms. The breadth of its technology platform allows them to select from a range of programming modules, and the modular approach is designed to enable them to tailor therapies to address the specific cancer cells or to improve an already established therapy, such as by making it suitable for outpatient use.

Advanced cell programming technology: Engineered T cell immunotherapy products show significant efficacy for haematological malignancies. However, realization of the potential of this approach across a broad range of tumor types will require multiple technology solutions to address limitations of the current generation of therapies. The firm is applying its extensive cell programming capability to develop a pipeline of precise, controlled and highly active products.It is also applying pattern recognition technology to engineer T cells with that are designed to enhance selectivity for tumor cells, sparing healthy cells and avoiding unwanted side effects.

The firm has developed technologies to modulate T cell activity or eliminate programmed T cells in the event of severe side effects that have been observed with these types of therapies. Autolus has developed a technology that is designed to deliver a cytokine signal directly inside its programmed T cells without administration of cytokines themselves. Depending on the tumor microenvironment, the cytokine persistence signal may be further enhanced by antigens secreted by the tumor. The company believes in its approach will be more potent and will have the potential to be less toxic, when compared to approaches that rely on systemic or local delivery of cytokines.

The Valiant leader behind the success of Autolus

Dr Christian Itin is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Autolus. Previously he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cytos Biotechnology Ltd, a public biotechnology company that merged with Kuros Biosurgery Holding Ltd, and until May 2019 he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the merged entity, renamed Kuros Biosciences Ltd. Dr. Christian was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2004. He co-founded Zyomyx, Inc., a protein chip company based in Hayward, CA, USA.

He received a diploma in biology and a PhD in cell biology from the University of Basel, Switzerland. In addition, he also performed post-doctoral research at the Biocenter of Basel University and at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.

“Autolus collaborates with leading academic institutions and industry partners to develop and deliver programmed T cell product candidates to patients.”