Mendus presents NK cell data at the Annual Innate Killer Summit
Mendus has presented additional data highlighting the use of its proprietary DCOne platform for the ex vivo expansion of NK cells at the 8th Annual Innate Killer Cell Summit in La Jolla, San Diego. The presentation stresses the fact that DCOne cells drive strong expansion of memory NK cells. This is a basis for potential new NK cell-based cancer therapies.
San Diego, California, has grown into a prominent centre for biotechnology companies in the US. While boasting with its sunny beaches, thus nicknamed Biotech Beach, it rivals other big biotech hubs in San Francisco, North Carolina and Boston. In fact, it is the third largest and the fastest-growing biotech hub in the US. It hosts a vast number of biopharmaceutical companies, many based in the La Jolla area.
Mendus presents at the 8th Innate Killer Summit
La Jolla also hosts the 8th Annual Innate Killer Cell Summit. The conference focuses on improving patient care by advancing the understanding and enhancing of innate immune cell therapies. Over 250 experts joined the summit from over 120 pioneering companies. One of the speakers this year was Erik Manting, PhD, and CEO of Mendus. The biopharmaceutical company is based in Sweden and The Netherlands, listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
The title of Erik Manting’s presentation is “Developing Expansion Protocols to Enrich for Memory Phenotypes to Produce Quality over Quantity in Final NK Cell Therapy Products.” It is featured as a part of the Clinical Scale Manufacturing track. During the event, Dr Manting also chaired a panel discussion, titled “Sharing a Vision of the Future for Commercial Scale Manufacturing of Innate Immune Cells.”
The DCOne platform improves NK cell quality
Natural killer (NK) cells are a type of immune cells that provide a first line of defence against viral infections and tumour cells. These cells are associated with improved tumour cell killing. They therefore hold great therapeutic promise in the treatment of haematological cancers and other tumour types. Protocols to expand these memory NK cells may thus provide the basis for novel NK cell-based therapies.
Mendus attended the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting 2022 (SITC), held November 8–12 in Boston. That is where the company first presented data demonstrating the potential of the DCOne platform to expand memory NK cells for therapeutic purposes. Mendus presented an update of its NK cell programme last week at the Innate Killer Summit.
The company also highlights that the expansion of memory NK cells is likely made possible by the observed presence of activating ligands on the cell surface of DCOne-derived mature dendritic cells. Based on the data, Mendus thus has the potential to enter this commercially promising field.
»Significant efforts in the NK field have been made to develop superior and reliable expansion methods for NK cells with optimal therapeutic efficacy, including efforts to improve memory phenotype.
The NK cell research at Mendus has focused on using our proprietary DCOne platform to improve NK cell quality and specifically on memory NK cells. The DCOne platform provides for an off-the-shelf source of cells which combine cancer cell and dendritic cell biology.Another important aspect of the DCOne cell line is that it is supported by an extensive regulatory dossier and has demonstrated an excellent safety profile in multiple clinical trials.« — Erik Manting, CEO Mendus
See the Innate Killer Cell presentation on the Mendus website:
https://mendus.com/nkcell-presentation/
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