Standardize CAR-T cell therapies, currently used against blood cancers, and all other cell therapies in development. And that is: create them in the laboratory “in series” and ready for use, compatible for all patients. Without having to take them from each individual patient, modify them genetically (with long waiting times and uncertainty of the result) and then reinfuse them. As? Starting from adult cells from donors that are “turned back in time”, with the characteristics of stem cells. It is this project that he is working on Nicola Romaniniyoung researcher at the IRCCS Romagnolo Institute for the Study of Tumors (IRST) “Dino Amadori”, among the three winners of “Bioneers – pioneers for life sciences”, the program that promotes biotechnological innovation in our country, created and supported by the Belgian biotech Galapagos and the Belgian Embassy in Italy.
CAR-T therapies, 31 authorized centers in Italy by Tiziana Moriconi 13 November 2023
The Early Bioneers Award
The program’s awards and honorable mentions were awarded yesterday, November 23, at the residence of the Belgian Ambassador in Rome. In particular, the Early Bioneers Award aims to encourage the development and growth of start-ups that have just been established or are being established, encouraging the initial phase of entrepreneurial creation of young researchers in the biomedical field and digital technologies in this sector. The projects are evaluated by a technical-scientific jury (made up of Guido Rasi, former director of the European Medicines Agency – EMA, Pierre Emmanuel De Bauw, Alberto Avaltroni, Paolo Bonaretti, Paola Testori Coggi and Sophie Messagè) on the basis of three criteria : level of innovation, expected impacts on the community and economic sustainability and cost-effectiveness ratio.
Lymphoma, safer Car-T therapy thanks to brain PET by Irma D’Aria 28 July 2023
Standardize cell therapies
The objective of Romanini’s project is to perfect a platform to obtain so-called “living drugs” (such as CAR-T) in a more rapid, safe and standardized way, reducing the high costs of current cell therapies: “The production platform that we are developing aims to obtain Natural Killer (NK) cells starting from induced pluripotent stem cells, which involve fewer toxicity problems compared to classic CAR-T cells. Lower toxicity implies lower probability of rejection, as well as lower risk of cytokine release syndrome,” explains the researcher. Obtaining the cells of the immune system from the sick patient, processing them in vitro and re-administering them is not always possible, because some patients are pre-treated and have an immunosuppressed immune system – continues Romanini – On the front of donor cell transplants, however, the problem concerns the standardization of the product, i.e. being able to obtain a product that is always the same. In fact, it may happen that the cells from a particular donor are more efficient than those obtained with another donor, or have a higher number or different characteristics. “Instead, a process that originates from induced pluripotent stem cells allows us to obtain a finished ‘product’ that is always the same”. Another advantage is the possibility of modifying the product according to different pathologies. Similar platforms are currently already being studied and the hope is that we can increase the scalability of cell therapies, bringing together all the entities that operate in this context in Italy.
Car-Cik cells, a new way against acute myeloid leukemia by Sara Carmignani 27 July 2023
The other Early Bioneers projects
The other two winners of the “Early Bioneers” Award are Lorenzo Coppadoro of the Polytechnic of Milan, ed Elisa Ferrari of the start up QuantaBrain, born within the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
Coppadoro, together with colleagues from the Polytechnic and other universities, is working on a new drug development process that does without animal models and works directly on human models, taking into account from the beginning the differences in sex, ethnicity, age.
The project by Ferrari and colleagues, however, concerns the field of psychiatry and in particular autism spectrum disorders: using artificial intelligence, the objective is to make the diagnosis early and objective on the basis of biomarkers identifiable from imaging tests, such as short MRI sessions.
Finally, a special mention for innovation went to Valentina Onesto of the CNR Nanotec, Institute of Nanotechnology of Lecce. His project involves the development of a new platform – made up of nanofibrous membranes containing optical sensors – to replicate the ecosystem underlying the development of more difficult-to-treat solid tumors.
Acute myeloid leukemia, the Italian trial with CAR-Natural Killer cells begins by Anna Lisa Bonfranceschi 24 January 2023