New collaborative research project to advance cancer therapies

Researchers from Imperial are collaborating with RemedyBio on a novel tumour infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs) discovery approach.

In a new project, researchers in the Department of Surgery & Cancer will be using RemedyBio's Nanoreactor platform for a novel tumour infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs) discovery approach and pre-clinical evaluation in gynaecological & other cancers. TILs are showing great promise in the treatment of cancer including those of gynaecological origin, due to their ability to target and kill cancer deposits and their excellent safety profile.

Speaking about the project, Dr Jonathan Krell, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer said: “RemedyBio's unique platform allows us to differentiate the most active patient-specific immune cells against cancer allowing us to move forward more quickly with new therapies to benefit patients.

“We believe that the efficacy of functional TILs retrieved from the Nanoreactor platform shown in our 3D ex-vivo models will generate evidence for a fast track to clinical trials.”

RemedyBio’s novel platform, Nanoreactor, is used for ultra-high throughput therapeutic discovery. It combines millions of parallel single cell analyses to rapidly identify and retrieve individual rare immune cells. This includes activated tumour-derived T-cells that can then be harvested and used for cancer patients as a personalised cell therapy.

Dr. Colm Galligan, Chief Medical Officer of RemedyBio, said: “We are very pleased to be working with the talented Imperial team on this exciting project. We believe that the combination of the Nanoreactor platform for identification and retrieval of activated and functional TILs, coupled with Imperial’s expertise and translational models, will rapidly allow for development of new therapies for gynaecological cancers where there is a great unmet medical need.”

The Department of Surgery and Cancer's unique pathway for obtaining fresh tissue samples and promoting bedside to bench and bench to bedside research gives it the ability to engage in international translational research collaborations with academic and commercial partners like RemedyBio. The S&C team includes Dr Jon Krell, Professor Christina Fotopoulou and Dr Paula Cunnea.