Full Press Release Details
Announces Publication of an Article in Cancer
on Allogeneic CAR T-cell Immunotherapies
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2015--Regulatory News:
Cellectis (Paris:ALCLS) (NASDAQ:CLLS) (Alternext: ALCLS - Nasdaq Global
Market: CLLS), the gene-editing company employing proprietary
technologies to develop best-in-class CAR T-cell products in adoptive
immunotherapy for cancer, today announced the publication of a study in Cancer
Research describing the applicability of TALEN -mediated genome
editing to a scalable process, which enables the manufacturing of
third-party CAR T-cell immunotherapies.
Adoptive immunotherapy using autologous T-cells endowed with chimeric
antigen receptors or CARs has emerged as a powerful means of treating
cancer. However, a limitation of this approach is that autologous CAR
T-cells must be generated on a custom-made basis.
To overcome the limitations of patient-derived CAR T-cell therapies,
TALEN mediated gene inactivation can be used to generate
non-alloreactive T-cells from third-party donors in a robust, scalable
manufacturing process, thus allowing "off-the-shelf" CAR T-cell
Laurent Poirot Ph.D. and his collaborators use this TALEN -mediated
editing approach to develop a process for the large-scale manufacturing
of T-cells deficient in expression of both their T-cell receptor (TCR)
and CD52, a protein targeted by alemtuzumab, a chemotherapeutic agent.
Functionally, T-cells manufactured with this process do not mediate
graft-versus-host reactions, and are rendered resistant to destruction
by alemtuzumab. These characteristics enable the administration of
alemtuzumab concurrently or prior to engineered T-cells, supporting
Furthermore, endowing the TALEN -engineered cells with a CD19 CAR led to
efficient destruction of CD19+ tumor targets even in the presence of the
chemotherapeutic agent.
CAR T-cell immunotherapies can therefore be used in an "off-the-shelf"
manner akin to other biological immunopharmaceuticals.
Laurent Poirot, Ph.D., Head of Early Discovery
Dr. Laurent Poirot studied physics and biology at the Ecole
Polytechnique in France, before earning his Ph.D. at the Strasbourg
University (France) and the Harvard Medical School in Boston. He then
joined the Genomics Institute of the Novartis research foundation in San
Diego as a postdoctoral fellow, where he studied the development of high
throughput in vivo and in vitro approaches for the study
of gene functions in immune cells. He joined Cellectis in 2009 as a
Project Leader, and has been working as Head of Early Discovery since
Multiplex genome edited T-cell manufacturing platform for
"off-the-shelf" adoptive T-cell immunotherapies
Laurent Poirot1, Brian Philip2, C cile Schiffer
Mannioui1, Diane Le Clerre1, Isabelle Chion-Sotinel1,
Sophie Derniame1, Pierrick Potrel1, C cile Bas1,
Laetitia Lemaire1, Roman Galetto1, C line Lebuhotel1,
Justin Eyquem1,3, Gordon Weng-Kit Cheung2,
Aymeric Duclert1, Agn s Gouble1, Sylvain
Arnould1, Karl Peggs2, Martin Pule2,
Andrew M. Scharenberg4 and Julianne Smith1
1 Cellectis, Paris, France
Haematology, UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK
Current address: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Current address: Department of Pediatrics, University of
Washington, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA
Cellectis is a preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on
developing immunotherapies based on gene edited engineered CAR-T cells
(UCART). The company's mission is to develop a new generation of cancer
therapies based on engineered T-cells. Cellectis capitalizes on its 15
years of expertise in genome engineering - based on its flagship TALEN
products and meganucleases and pioneering electroporation PulseAgile
technology - to create a new generation of immunotherapies. CAR
technologies are designed to target surface antigens expressed on cells.
Using its life-science-focused, pioneering genome-engineering
technologies, Cellectis' goal is to create innovative products in
multiple fields and with various target markets. Cellectis S.A. is
listed on the Nasdaq Global Market (ticker: CLLS) and on the NYSE
Alternext market (ticker: ALCLS). To find out more about us, visit our
website: www.cellectis.com
TALEN is a registered trademark owned by Cellectis Group.
This press release and the information contained herein do not
constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a solicitation of an offer
to buy or subscribe, for shares in Cellectis in any country. This press
release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the Company's
objectives based on the current expectations and assumptions of the
Company's management only and involve risk and uncertainties that could
cause the Company to fail to achieve the objectives expressed by the
forward-looking statements above.
For further information:
Jennifer Moore, +1-917-580-1088
Harnest, +1-646-385-9008
VP Finance and Investor Relations