The Bio Report

Activating the Adaptive and Innate Immune Systems to Fight Cancer

One reason immunotherapies can fail in cancer is that the tumor microenvironment can suppress activation of the immune system. Surface Oncology is using multiple platform technologies to discover new antibody therapies that activate both the innate and adaptive immune systems to improve how people with cancer respond to these medicines. We spoke to Rob Ross, CEO of Surface Oncology, about the tumor microenvironment, the approach Surface is taking to activate both the adaptive and innate immune system, and its lead therapeutic candidates in development.

A Longevity Fund Focused on Young Companies

The deepening understanding of the biology of aging is giving rise to a growing list of companies that seek not only to address diseases of aging, but find ways to extend the healthy years of life. LongeVC is a venture capital firm focused on seed and early-stage investment in longevity statups. It’s also built a community of like-minded companies to support startups, as well as an acceleration program for them. We spoke to Sergey Jakimov, founding partner of LongeVC, about the firm’s approach to investing, what constitutes a longevity play for it, and the network of companies it has assembled to help advance the startups it backs.

Learning from “Elite” Responders to Develop Better Immunotherapies

A subset of patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors respond particularly well to these immunotherapies. These so-called “elite responders” produce antibodies that modulate immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. OncoResponse is working to discover the antibodies these elite responders produce to develop a pipeline of cancer therapies. We spoke to Bob Lechleider, chief medical officer of OncoRepsonse, about the tumor microenvironment, how his company is studying elite responders to immunotherapies to discover new antibodies to modulate the immune system, and his company’s lead program in clinical development.

Bringing Precision Medicine to the Treatment of Obesity

Obesity rates in the United States have doubled in the past 20 years and without changes, nearly half of the adult population will be obese by 2030. Though there are many approaches to weight loss—diet and exercise, drugs, surgery—their safety and efficacy varies widely from patient to patient. Phenomix Sciences is using phenotyping to understand the type of obesity each individual has to tailor treatments that address it specifically. Based on work at the Mayo Clinic, Phenomix breaks obesity into four different subtypes. We spoke to Mark Bagnall, CEO of Phenomix, about the company’s efforts to bring precision medicine to the treatment of obesity, the testing it performs, and the science underlying its approach.

Expanding the Promise of RNA Therapies

RNA therapies and vaccines have already shown their power. Nutcracker Therapeutics is taking a nod from the high-tech sector to harness semiconductor-like biochips and microfluidic engineering to create a fully automated platform to increase the speed and scale at which RNA therapies can be discovered, developed, and manufactured. It is developing multimodal RNA therapies which serves as an RNA cocktail to attack multiple disease mechanisms at once. We spoke to Geoff Nosrati, chief business officer of Nutcracker, about the company’s platform technology, its lead program targeting HPV-driven tumors, and its focus on multimodal RNA therapies.

Triggering a Systemic Immune Response Against Cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are transforming cancer care, but still have low response rates in most solid tumors. When cancer spreads to the liver, it can render immunotherapies ineffective because of the large number of immune-suppressive macrophages that are present there. Teclison has developed platform technology that chokes off tumors and activates the immune system against the cancer. The company said its technology can significantly enhances the therapeutic benefit of immunotherapies and can be leveraged to treat nearly all solid tumors. We spoke to Ray Lee, founder and chief medical officer of Teclison, about the company’s platform technology, it’s lead therapeutic candidate, and how it can trigger a systemic immune response.

Targeting RNA Dysregulation in Cancer

Inspirna is putting RNA biology to work to address difficult to treat cancers that affect large numbers of people, such as colorectal cancer, small cell lung cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. Its platform technology is being used to discover the underlying drivers of cancer that can be drugged by both small molecules and biologics to address RNA dysregulation. We spoke to Masoud Tavazoie, co-founder and CEO of Inspirna, about the role RNA dysregulation plays in certain cancers, Inspirna’s platform technology, and its clinical pipeline in development.

Building a Pipeline of Next-Generation Kinase Inhibitors

Kinase inhibitors have become staples in the arsenal to battle cancer. These medicines can disrupt the cell signaling that drives the growth and spread of tumors. There are more than 30 approved kinase inhibitors today, but they often have dose limiting toxicities, in part because they often lack specificity and can have activity against multiple kinases at once. Blueprint Medicines is seeking to develop next-generation kinase inhibitors that are highly selective to treat genomically-defined cancers and rare diseases. We spoke to Fouad Namouni, president of research and development for Blueprint, about the company’s discovery platform, the large unexplored territory of kinases, and what makes Blueprint’s kinase medicines next-generation.