Collaborating to Develop Oncologic Cell Therapies
André Choulika, PhD, chief executive officer and cofounder, Cellectis, discussed the company’s partnerships and science.
“We thought, maybe gene editing can transform the autologous CAR T therapy in something that could be off-the-shelf and convert this very complex process to a frozen pharmaceutical product and make it broadly available to everyone. For this, you have to inject an allogeneic T cell into a lympho-depleted person...we then use gene editing and monoclonal antibodies to prevent immune responses on both sides.”
Cellectis is targeting hematologic malignancies, including leukemias and lymphomas, and solid tumors with their chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. These therapies act against CD19, CD20, CD22, CD70, and other molecular targets for oncologic indications.
Cellectis’ lead programs are UCART22 for the potential treatment of relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, UCART123 for the potential treatment of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia, and UCARTCS1 for the potential treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, all of which are allogeneic CAR T-cell therapies.
GeneTherapyLive spoke with André Choulika, PhD, chief executive officer and cofounder, Cellectis, to learn more about the company’s beginnings and science. He discussed partnerships Cellectis has with Servier and Allogene on several programs, with Iovance to develop tumor infiltrating lymphocyte therapies, and with Cytovia to develop natural killer cell therapies.
