Tessa Therapeutics

At Tactiva Therapeutics, we are taking the fight to cancer by developing “Next Generation” adoptive cell therapy (ACT) strategies that deliver lethal hits to cancer cells. Zhang is the co-founder & CEO of TriArm Therapeutics, and is a Venture Partner of Panacea Venture. Koya is the author of many high-impact publications in the field of cancer research and currently leads NIH funded prospective clinical trials based on an immune-modulator-enhanced TCR-engineered T cell transfer for metastatic cancer patients. Odunsi is the Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC), and Dean for Oncology, Biological Services Division at the University of Chicago. Odunsi is the author or co-author on more than 250 journal publications or book chapters. Odunsi is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Anna-Marie Kellen Clinical Investigator Award from the Cancer Research Institute. Our approach provides robust and sustained immune attack on tumors by infusing large numbers of patients’ own T cells that have been re-programed to recognize, attack and destroy cancer cells. As the reprogramed HSCs mature in vivo, they become a continual, long term source of cancer fighting T cells that bear Tactiva’s TCRs, leading to sustained attack on cancer cells.

We are developing a rich clinical-stage pipeline to unlock the long-held promise of CAR-T cell therapies. Gracell Biotechnologies is a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering and developing innovative and highly efficacious cell therapy. Dr Xie has over 18 years of finance and investment experience in leading healthcare investment organizations. Xie served as the President of Fosun Healthcare Holdings and Chief Representative of Fosun, New York. Xie co-founded and served as Portfolio Manager of Locust Walk Capital. Gracell is developing cell therapy that deliver fast, deep and durable responses for cancer and autoimmune disease patients. Our autologous platform producing CAR-T cell therapies that utilize next-day manufacturing to deliver younger, less exhausted T cells with enhanced activities.

T2EVOLVE is a new breakthrough alliance of academic and industry leaders in cancer immunotherapy under the European Union’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). The key objective of T2EVOLVE is to accelerate development and increase awareness and access of cancer patients to immunotherapy with immune cells that harbor a genetically engineered T-cell receptor (TCR) or synthetic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). Simultaneously, T2EVOLVE aims to provide guidance on sustainable integration of these treatment into the EU healthcare system. Engineered T-cell therapy is a revolutionary cancer treatment where a patient’s immune cells are reprogrammed to seek and destroy cancer cells. Translational Strategy Leader, Cell Therapies, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and EFPIA project leader for T2EVOLVE IMI Consortium,Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This project received funding from the innovative Medicines initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 945393.

Rebirthel aims to realize cell-based therapies against cancer or other immune-related diseases by using universal T cells that are regenerated from pluripotent stem cells. To solve these problems, Rebirthel provides “off-the-shelf T cells” that can be universally used with any patients in an allogeneic setting. Rebirthel has already established a method by which potent killer T cells can be produced in vitro from iPS cells. Using this method, Rebirthel is now developing a strategy where tumor antigen-specific T cells are mass-produced and transfused to patients as off-the-shelf T cells. Rebirthel opens the way to a future when patients go to hospital to receive transfusion of T cells to treat their disease. Rebirthel was founded in October 2019 with the aim of providing novel treatments against cancer, infectious diseases, and other immune-related diseases. Rebirthel is one of the leading companies in the field of immunotherapy and has multiple globally patented technologies. Rebirthel operationalizes cell-based cancer immunotherapies developed by Professor Hiroshi Kawamoto (Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University).Rebirthel will provide “universal” cytotoxic T lymphocytes regenerated from pluripotent stem cells, to be used as “off-the-shelf T cells” in cancer immunotherapy.

Atara's mission is to unleash the extraordinary power of the body's immune system. Our platform is unique—and it's what makes Atara well-positioned to deliver on our goal of bringing off-the-shelf immunotherapies to patients in need. Cokey Nguyen is a leader in the fields of cell therapy and oncology with significant experience in research and development of cell therapies as well as oncology drug discovery and development in biotech. Matthew is a director of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical. The center, which is dedicated to the development of innovative stem cell and gene therapies for patients with currently incurable diseases, spans a wide range of bench and clinical research activities from basic biology through translational research, and features its own GMP cell processing and Phase 1 study units. Roncarolo was the principal investigator leading the successful gene therapy trial in SCID, a severe life threatening disorder in which patients lack an enzyme critical to DNA synthesis. We gained access to several of MSK’s innovative enabling technologies, including a novel costimulatory domain (1XX) that may have physiologic T-cell activation properties, as well as methods for designing CAR T immunotherapies. Learn how we align our work with our mission, culture, and core values every day.

At PACT (Personalized Adoptive Cell Therapy), our priority, above all else, is to improve the lives of people living with cancer. Built on visionary science by our co-founders, Nobel Laureate and cell therapy pioneer David Baltimore, Ph.D., Jim Heath, Ph.D., and Antoni Ribas M.D., Ph.D., along with Terry Rosen, Ph.D., and Juan Jaen, Ph.D., the product candidates developed at PACT allow us to specifically identify and validate the patient-specific “neoantigen” targets to develop and provide curative T cell therapies for every person’s unique cancer. Adoptive cell therapies have delivered impressively on the potential for curative benefit to people diagnosed with hematological (blood) cancers. However, this represents only about 10% of all cancer patients. The remaining 90% of all patients with cancer are diagnosed with solid cancers affecting tissues and organs throughout the body.