Columbia Technology Ventures

Probiotic-guided CAR-T cell system for targeted cancer immunotherapy

This technology is an engineered probiotic bacteria-guided CAR-T immunotherapy system for the treatment of various types of cancer, including solid tumors.

Unmet Need: Effective immunotherapy for solid tumors

Immunotherapy is FDA approved for the treatment of an increasing number of cancers; however, the overall patient response rate for immunotherapy remains low. This is due to the hypoxic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, which does not allow for immune cells to infiltrate the tumor. Solid tumors have an especially low immunotherapy response rate, hindering the use of immunotherapy in patients with certain types of cancer.

The Technology: Probiotic-guided CAR-T system for enhanced cancer immunotherapy

This technology employs an engineered probiotic bacteria-guided CAR-T system for cancer treatment. The engineered bacteria colonize tumors and release synthetic proteins, which the CAR-T cells are programmed to recognize and respond to. The bacteria can also release chemokines to attract immune cells to the tumor sites and activate an immune response against the tumor.

This technology has been validated in xenograft models of human lymphoma and solid tumor models.

Applications:

  • Immunotherapy for cancer treatment, inflammatory diseases, and autoimmune diseases
  • Immunotherapy for treatment of other hyperproliferative disorders
  • Research model for studying immunotherapy

Advantages:

  • Improved efficacy of immunotherapy
  • Low toxicity/off target effects
  • No proven resistance
  • Targets and modulates immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments
  • Expands to different types of cancer including solid tumors
  • More targeted than standard immunotherapy

Lead Inventor:

Tal Danino, Ph.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Pending (US/2024/0016847)

Related Publications:

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