CARxALL – A new therapeutic opportunity for t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients
Development of a novel CAR-T therapy against pediatric leukemia
The European consortium CARxALL, led by OneChain Immunotherapeutics (OCI) and funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition Program, is focused on developing a novel CAR T-cell based therapy targeting T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).
Treating T-ALL remains a clinical challenge. Despite improved survival rates due to intensive chemotherapy regimens, 90% of patients ultimately die.
Strategies targeting T-cell malignancies using immunotherapies (including CAR-Ts) remain challenging due to the shared expression of target antigens between normal and malignant T-cells, ultimately leading to life-threatening immunodeficiency, which limits therapeutic efficacy.
This new therapy uses a subtype of T-cells (gamma delta), which are allogenic, eliminating donor dependency, and prone to scalable manufacture, therefore representing a promising off-the-shelf cell product.
iBET’s Participation in CARxALL
iBET plays a key role in translating the production process to the industrial level (Work Package 4), coordinated by Dr Margarida Serra (Head of the Stem and Immune Cells Bioengineering Lab).
In addition to OCI and iBET, the CARxALL project also involves key collaborators such as the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute and the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology (CBMSO).
Image source: www.carxall.com
Funded by:
European Union’s EIC Transition programme under Grant Agreement nº 101113067
