Editas Medicine Presents Pre-Clinical Data Supporting the use of CRISPR-Cas12a to Edit Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for the Development of Engineered Cell Immunotherapies
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer a renewable source of highly characterized cells that can be differentiated into an array of immune effector cells, including, but not limited to, iPSC-derived natural killer cells (iNKs). Edited iPSC clones can then be screened and selected to contain only the desired edits, ensuring a pure and edited final population of iNKs. Allogenic NK cells are an effective cancer cell therapy without evidence of graft versus host disease.
In this study, CRISPR-Cas12a was used to make highly edited iPSC clones. The iPSCs were then differentiated into functional iNK cells. The iNKs derived from the edited iPSC clones had enhanced tumor killing activity relative to iNKs from unedited iPSCs, demonstrating the utility of an edited iPSC platform. This data supports the continued development of off-the-shelf engineered cell medicines for people with solid tumor cancers.
“We have made significant progress in our engineered cell medicine program for the treatment of oncologic diseases, and this data further supports our belief that using CRISPR technology to make differentiated medicines can make a meaningful impact in the treatment of cancer,” said
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Contacts: MediaCristi Barnett (617) 401-0113 cristi.barnett@editasmed.com InvestorsMark Mullikin (617) 401-9083 mark.mullikin@editasmed.com
Source: Editas Medicine, Inc.