Identifying Patient-Specific Tumor Targets

"ATLAS was created because we understood that you cannot predict yet what is going to be a good target for diverse human subjects. While predictions are quite good for certain subsets of people, it can't work well, in theory, for a whole population... We’re different because we use a biological assay to screen every single possible target to identify what the right target is for a person to be treated with.”

Genocea is creating personalized immunotherapies for patients with solid tumors with the help of their ATLAS platform. The platform uses patient samples to identify the best antigens to target in each patient’s tumors. The company’s 2 lead programs are GEN-009, a neoantigen vaccine, and GEN-011, a neoantigen-specific peripheral T-cell therapy. 

GEN-009 is being investigated in a phase 1/2 trial (NCT03633110) that has demonstrated long term, broad immune responses against neoantigens in data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 meeting in June. GEN-011 is being investigated in the phase 1/2 TiTAN trial (NCT04596033), which dosed its first patient in July 2021.

GeneTherapyLive spoke with Jessica Baker Flechtner, PhD, chief scientific officer, Genocea, to learn more about the ATLAS platform and the company’s focus on identifying the right targets for each patient. She also discussed GEN-011 and the TiTan trial.

REFERENCE

Genocea provides second quarter 2021 corporate update. News release. Genocea. July 29, 2021. https://ir.genocea.com/news-releases/news-release-details/genocea-provides-second-quarter-2021-corporate-update