About
Evobright aims to discover and develop innovative cancer drugs that enable the patient’s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells in solid tumors, thereby prolonging and improving the lives of cancer patients.
Our therapeutic concept is based on mimicking bacterial infection in tumor cells, which recruits a subpopulation of human immune cells called gamma delta T cells (γδTC) to destroy the labeled cells even in immunosuppressed environments. Evobright’s unique technology platform with its modular antibody design provides the basis for a portfolio of cancer drugs perfectly suited for the treatment of various solid cancers.
team
Klaus-Peter Künkele
CEO and co-founder
Klaus-Peter studied biology in Stuttgart and at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg before joining the Neupert group in Munich for his PhD. He has >20 years professional experience in big pharma industry and is inventor on numerous patents backing 3 billion-dollar licensing deals. His insights into the evolutionary mechanisms underlying human disease at the molecular level are fueling Evobright’s pipeline. In addition to his extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical business, Klaus-Peter brings an international network of experts and significant private resources to Evobright.
Christoph Baumann
COO and co-founder
Christoph had scientific stations at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), at the Max-Planck Institute (MPI) in Munich and at the Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) in Vienna, where he performed cutting edge translational research in the fields of cancer and immunology resulting in several high impact publications. In the past ten years he focused on drug development advancing antibody therapies against cancer and pathogenic infections as project leader and program director at Boehringer Ingelheim and Austrianni GmbH. Christoph`s versatile scientific background in combination with his experience in therapeutic antibodies and biotech build-up are a cornerstone for Evobright’s success.
Malte Deseke
Head of Antibody Screening and gamma delta T cell research lab
Malte studied biology at the Christian-Albrecht-University in Kiel and at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. In 2018, he joined the lab of Prof. Immo Prinz, a renowned expert in the gd T cell field, at the Hannover Medical School. During his PhD, Malte worked on gd TCR antigen recognition and contributed to several publications and a patent. With his strong background in biochemistry assay development and, especially, his deep understanding of gamma delta T cell biology, Malte is the cornerstone for the set up and flow of Evobright’s research.
scientific advisors
Prof. Matthias Peipp
Professor for Antibody-Based Immunotherapy,
University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH)
Matthias received his PhD at the chair of genetics at the Friedrich-Alexander-University (Erlangen- Nuremberg, Germany). In 2015 he was awarded an endowed professorship, the “Mildred- Scheel-Professorship for experimental antibody-based cancer immunotherapy”. Matthias has a long-standing expertise in antibody engineering and effector mechanisms triggered by antibodies and antibody derivatives, reflected in > 100 peer reviewed publications and acts as scientific advisor to several pharmaceutical companies.
Prof. Daniela Wesch
Professor for “Cellular Tumor Immunology” at the Institute of Immunology,
University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH)
Danielas research interests focus around deep understanding of tumor immune escape mechanisms, regulatory functions and optimization of anti-tumor response of (γδ ) T cells. She has authored over 100 publications and holds multiple awards and fellowships. Together with PD Dr. Hans-Heinrich Oberg, she performs cutting edge translational cancer research at the hospital site. Their work is fundamental for translating novel γδ T cell-based immunotherapies into the clinical application and for predicting their effects in real patients. Danielas research group at Kiel has collaborations with different universities world-wide, with pharmaceutical companies and biotechs.
science
Over the past 20 years, increasing efforts have been made in developing therapies which artificially manipulate cells of the immune system to target tumor cells. The success of CD3 T cell engagers (CD3 TcE) in hematological cancers have raised hopes for a similarly effective treatment of patients with solid tumors. However, the multitude of mechanisms of immunosuppression that have evolved in solid tumors cannot yet be overcome by these drugs, leaving a tremendous need for better therapies.
read moreAlready a century ago, the american physician William Coley had observed that opportunistic or induced bacterial infection of solid tumors can result in a complete elimination of the diseased tissue. Interestingly, a 2015 study of 18,000 tumor patients identified gamma delta T cells – a rare immune cell population specialized in rigorously clearing bacterially infected cells – as being most beneficial to the survival of patients with solid tumors (Gentles et al.). Based on these findings, Evobright`s Evobodies now translate the “Coley effect” into modern medicine without the necessity to infect patients with actual bacteria but by mimicking the bacterial infection signal on the tumor cells.
read morereferences
Gentles et al., Nature Medicine 2015
Cibersort of all TILs identifies Vg9Vd2 T cells as most favorable
Kuenkele et al., Cells 2020
Versatility of Vg9Vd2 T cells in infections and cancer biology
Fucà et al., ESMO Open 2021
Immune cell engagers in solid tumors: promises and challenges of the next generation immunotherapy
Duell et al., Leukemia 2017
Frequency of regulatory T cells determines the outcome of the T-cell-engaging antibody blinatumomab in patients with B-precursor ALL
Köhnke et al., Journal of Hematology & Oncology 2015
Increase of PD-L1 expressing B-precursor ALL cells in a patient resistant to the CD19/CD3-bispecific T cell engager antibody blinatumomab
Barbari et al., Int J Mol Sci 2020
Immunotherapies and Combination Strategies for Immuno-Oncology.
Chan et al., Front Immunol 2022
γδ T Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment—Interactions With Other Immune Cells.
pipeline
Evobright exploits its unique technology platform to build a drug development pipeline against multiple cancer indications.
The composition of the Evobright pipeline and the selection of targets is based on unmet medical need and commercial attractiveness.
Evo-1
Undisclosed Cancer Indication
Evo-2
Undisclosed Cancer Indication
Evo-3
Undisclosed Cancer Indication
1. Discovery
Evobrights drug pipeline feeds from its innovative Evobody platform technology. Based on our thoughtfully designed tool box of antibody modules, our scientists are able to generate drug candidates for specific cancer indications by combining our optimized effector module with one of our selected tumor anchor binding moieties. Following a positive proof-of-concept, we proceed to generate molecules with properties that – at the end of the discovery phase – suffice to provide lead candidates for preclinical development.
2. Preclinical
The pre-clinical Phase of a program starts with optimization of lead molecules including quality check and in-depth CMC. After the generation of production cell lines and clinical material under GMP, the final drug product is again characterized in highly predictive, patient derived efficacy test systems as well as in generally approved GLP toxicity models. Ultimate goal of this phase is the generation of a stringent and translationally highly relevant data package for IND filing.
3. Clinical
Clinical development of Evobright`s first drug in an oncologic indication will be initiated in 2025. Evobright will identify investors for this phase and is also open for co-development or out-licensing of single assets with other companies.
news
jobs
We started hiring in Q4/2022
If you share our vision and if you think you have what it takes to support our mission – Then we definitely want to talk to you.