Nexgenia and Seattle Children’s Research Institute Join Forces to Advance Immunotherapy Research Efforts
Developing novel reagents designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies
Seattle, WA – October 19 – Nexgenia, a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development and manufacture of proprietary polymer-based reagents, is collaborating with Seattle Children’s Research Institute to develop improved immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. The collaboration will allow researchers from both institutions to use Nexgenia’s technology platform to efficiently target and select immune cells, including CAR T cells. Funding for the partnership came from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute Office of Science-Industry Partnerships.
Under terms of the agreement, Nexgenia researchers will prepare cell selection reagents using the company’s polymers and magnetic nanoparticles, combined with antibodies provided by Dr. Michael Jensen of Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Both labs plan to test the combined reagents at small scale, using cells lines and primary T cells. Selected reagents will then be tested at full preclinical scale. Following this work, Nexgenia reagents may be advanced for clinical evaluation.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Seattle Children’s Research Institute to help advance their immunotherapy efforts by investigating the application of our polymer technology to help improve and accelerate the immunotherapy development process – paving the way for personalized immunotherapy to be efficiently and rapidly developed on a large scale, ” said Ron Myers, Chief Executive Officer of Nexgenia.
Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Treatment involves extracting specialized immune cells, called T cells, from a patient’s blood and re-engineering the cells so they are able to identify and kill specific tumor cells. These modified cells are then administered back to a patient.
“One of the challenges in advancing cancer immunotherapy is finding processes that can help streamline the widespread application of an individualized treatment,” said Dr. Jensen. “We look forward to investigating the potential of the Nexgenia technology to improve our ability to rapidly and effectively select immune cells, such as CAR T cells.” For more information about Seattle Children’s Research Institute, visit their website: http://www.seattlechildrens.org/research/
About Nexgenia
Nexgenia develops proprietary stimuli-responsive polymers and polymer-containing magnetic nanoparticles that represent the next generation in diagnostic and cell separation reagents. These reagents, which are engineered for high speed and sensitivity, have potential applications across a wide array of therapeutic and diagnostics applications. Nexgenia has developed significant manufacturing and applications expertise for these reagents, along with a growing intellectual property portfolio. For more information, visit www.nexgeniacorp.com.
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