Bayer invests into synthetic TCRs for cell therapy

Sometimes it’s not bad to have old contacts like Jak Knowles, CEO of Boston-based Affini-T Therapeutics Inc., which left stealth mode at the J.P. Morgan Conference and now threw in $175m. Because one of the lead investors in his company’s current first-round financing, along with Vida Ventures is his ex-employer, Leaps by Bayer. Others include Humboldt Fund, The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Catalio Capital Management, Agent Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, Erasca Ventures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and other leading blue chip life science investor.

Like US-German T-knife Therapeutics, Affini-T Therapeutics aims to outsmart the immunosuppressive environment of solid tumours by optimising T cell receptors (TCRs). The US company combines a TCR discovery platform with synthetic biology to engineer immune cells to target oncogenic driver mutations, like KRAS and p53, the most prevalent oncogenic driver mutations in solid tumours, to “minimise potential tumour escape mechanisms.”

Co-founded at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with Phil Greenberg, Aude Chapuis, and Tom Schmitt, and Vida Ventures along with serial entrepreneurs Arjun Goyal and Jak Knowles, the company starts with a preclinical pipeline that includes four immuno-oncological TCRT-T cell therapy candidates (KRAS G12V, KRAS G12D, Mutant p53, undisclosed) and two oncogenic viral driver programms, one of which licenced from Fred Hutchinson Center is in Phase I trails (MCPyV) against Merkel cell polyomavirus.
 
With proceeds from this financing, Affini-T Therapeutics will advance its TCR discovery engine and seek to drive three oncogene driver programs into the clinic while pursuing complementary technology licenses to bolster its cell therapy platform.  “Our differentiated platform combines highly active TCRs with unique synthetic biology, allowing us to pioneer novel therapeutic approaches intended to eradicate solid tumors,2 said Jak Knowles.

Affini-T’s proprietary claims its suite of synthetic biology switches can rewrite the rules of the tumour microenvironment, enhancing T cell function to increase durability, build persistent responses and augment tumour infiltration.