Exposing the Advantages of iPSC-Natural Killer Cell Therapies

"Most companies are drawing on the cells from the blood, like T cells and NK cells. The technology we develop is different. We use the pluripotent stem cells which are basically equivalent to embryonic stem cells but derived from adult somatic cells. We developed technology that basically recapitulates cell development in a 3d bioreactor. We can make very high-quality NK cells and other cells as well. Right now we focusing on NK cells, because they are our first immune defense in our body."

HebeCell Corp is using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to create natural killer cell therapies for immuno-oncology indications. Their approach offers advantages over traditional chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies by use of their scalable feeder-free iPSC-NK platform which tackles CAR T manufacturing challenges and limited availability.

GeneTherapyLive spoke with Allen Feng, PhD, chief scientific officer, HebeCell, to learn about the advantages of their iPSC-NK platform over traditional cell therapies. He also discussed the recent funding the company received from Jacobio Pharmaceuticals, intended to support the development of next-generation iPSC-CAR-NK therapies for oncologic, viral, and autoimmune indications. The funding will be used to accelerate research and development, investigational new drug application filings, and marketing.

REFERENCE

HebeCell raises $53 million in series A financing to advance unique off-the-shelf PSC-CAR-NK products into clinics. News release. HebeCell Corp. August 31, 2021. https://hebecellcorp.com/hebecell-raises-53-million-in-series-a-financing-to-advance-unique-off-the-shelf-psc-car-nk-products-into-clinics/