Evobody works on real patient tumors
Breakthrough for Vienna based start-up biotech Evobright: Evobright’s most advanced Evobodies show superior tumor cell killing in a primary patient tumor.
Experts from the Cellular Tumor Immunology group at Kiel University Hospital (UKSH) were able to demonstrate their efficacy in freshly isolated tumor tissue, which is transferred directly into the test systems after resection. The special and unique feature of this approach is that the tumor retains its original composition, and no additional immune cells are added to increase the effector-target ratio.
“We are dealing with a “real-life” scenario here, where we are faced with tumor-intrinsic factors such as heterogeneity, immunosuppression, immune cell exhaustion, and a much lower number of immune cells, unlike other in vitro experiments that are commonly shown. This is the reality test of whether the way we activate the immune response is strong enough to overcome these hurdles. We are very proud that our lead molecule achieves such an effect in a patient’s tumor.
It is also striking that a published CD3-activating molecule against the same tumor antigen shows no effect in the same experiment in a direct comparison. These results support our therapeutic concept that the best way to elicit a strong immune response directed at the tumor is to send an infection signal from the tumor,” said Klaus-Peter Künkele, CEO of Evobright.
Evobright is now nearly two years old and, together with its network of collaborators, has generated, purified, and screened hundreds of molecules to identify this lead Evobody as the first tumor cell engager for preclinical development.
