- TCXpress™ identified a diverse set of novel T-cell receptors (TCRs) with in vitro reactivity against the minor histocompatibility antigen HA-1, from a single donor
- Data support the broad potential of TCXpress™ to rapidly and efficiently identify TCRs with activity against a selected target
PITTSBURGH, PA, April 8, 2022 — BlueSphere Bio, a T-cell receptor (TCR) T-cell therapy company developing a powerful TCR discovery platform and novel therapeutic candidates for patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, today announced that it presented preclinical data demonstrating the potential of its novel high throughput TCXpress™ platform to efficiently identify TCRs against minor histocompatibility antigens (miHAs) for the future clinical development of adoptive TCR T cell therapy aimed at improving the efficacy of allogeneic stem cell transplant (alloSCT) treatments for patients with hematologic malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), during the 2022 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting on April 8 – 13, 2022.
This work enabled the discovery of BlueSphere’s first clinical candidate, a TCR T-cell therapy directed against the miHA HA-1. The company anticipates filing its first IND by the end of 2022. In addition, the TCXpress™ platform has enabled the discovery of a TCR panel reactive against other relevant miHAs, which BlueSphere plans to soon announce this year.
Mark Shlomchik, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer of BlueSphere Bio commented that “The data from this presentation highlight the potential of our platform technology for the development of novel cellular therapies targeting miHAs that can be used to improve treatment outcomes in alloSCT. These data also demonstrate the remarkable efficiency of our high throughput discovery platform to robustly identify TCRs with potential applications that are not limited to a single class of targets or therapeutic strategy. We look forward to continuing to advance our internally developed candidates and fully realizing the potential of this platform to transform TCR discovery.”
Presentation Highlights
Title: High throughput single cell based cloning reveals functional diversity of T-cell receptors targeting minor histocompatibility antigen
Presenter: Sawa Ito, M.D., Ph.D., hematologist/oncologist at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology Oncology and of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Data Highlights:
• TCXpress™ successfully identified a diverse set of novel TCRs with activity against the miHA, HA-1, from a single donor, naturally immunized to HA-1 through pregnancy.
• TCXpress™ yielded this set of TCRs with a broad functional affinity from a single donor, demonstrating its rapid and efficient discovery capabilities.
• When re-expressed in primary CD8-positive T cells, a high affinity TCR against HA-1 mediated specific killing of HA-1 positive target cells.
• The data also highlight the wide range of TCR affinities that can arise from a natural immune response against a single allopeptide/HLA complex, underscoring the potential to identify and characterize TCRs against other targets with this technology.
About TCXpress™
TCXpress™ is a proprietary high-throughput and efficient T-cell receptor (TCR) capture, expression and functional screening platform capable of processing thousands of single T cells directly into functionally expressed TCRs within a matter of days, thereby creating extensive libraries without the need for lengthy sequencing.
About BlueSphere Bio
BlueSphere Bio is the first translational sciences stand-alone company formed by UPMC Enterprises, the innovation, commercialization and venture capital arm of the Pittsburgh-based health system. The company was founded upon the unique, advanced TCR discovery platform TCXpress™, designed to isolate and functionally characterize TCRs with speed, sensitivity and efficiency. BlueSphere anticipates filing its first IND application in 2022 for a novel TCR T-cell therapy for patients with high risk leukemias, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and myeloid dysplastic syndrome (MDS) in the context of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Concurrent with its pursuit of hematologic cancers, BlueSphere is pursuing additional programs in solid tumors using NEOXpress™, a proprietary patient-specific neoantigen discovery platform, to target patient-specific neoantigens, and anticipates additional virtual patient data from multiple tumor types on a rolling basis over the next year.
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