SBIR Phase I: A single-cell-interaction platform for accelerating discovery of bispecific T-cell engagers

SBIR 第一阶段：用于加速双特异性 T 细胞接合者发现的单细胞相互作用平台

• 批准号: 1913404
• 负责人: George Wu
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Amberstone Biosciences, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2020-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1913404&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; single; cell; interaction

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will be a platform to identify new immunotherpeutics for the treatment of cancer. For a variety of human diseases, cancer in particular, several recently approved immunotherapeutics can effectively treat and, in some cases, cure several forms of cancer that were considered fatal. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of these treatments currently available, and the cost is high. This project aims to develop a new technology that may empower biopharma and biotech companies to discover next generation therapeutics in an expeditious and cost-effective manner with a much higher chance of success. Ultimately, the project aims to help bring more efficacious and more affordable choices for immunotherapeutics to benefit patients with unmet medical needs. This SBIR Phase I is a proposal to evaluate a cutting-edge single-cell-interaction platform technology for its potential to accelerate the discovery of immunotherapeutics, specifically, the bispecific T cell engagers (BiTEs), a clinically validated class of bispecific antibodies. BiTEs consist of two distinct domains that can simultaneously bind to a T cell target and a tumor target. BiTEs' unique ability to link T cells to tumor cells allows them to exhibit improved specificity and efficacy, in part through a novel mode of action, by activating T cells to kill tumor cells. However, the development process for BiTEs has been very slow, limiting their clinical availability for a broad range of devastating diseases. A recurring challenge in the field is the lack of a robust platform that is capable of rapid and efficient identification of lead BiTE candidates in a cost-effective manner. The current proposal aims to prove the technical and operational feasibility of the proposed microfluidic-based single-cell-interaction platform technology that can directly interrogate the functions of many individual BiTE variants in a compartmentalized assay format.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是一个平台，以确定新的免疫治疗癌症。对于各种人类疾病，特别是癌症，最近批准的几种免疫治疗剂可以有效地治疗，并在某些情况下治愈几种被认为是致命的癌症。不幸的是，目前只有少数几种治疗方法，而且成本很高。该项目旨在开发一种新技术，使生物制药和生物技术公司能够以快速和具有成本效益的方式发现下一代治疗方法，并获得更高的成功机会。最终，该项目旨在帮助为免疫治疗提供更有效、更实惠的选择，使医疗需求未得到满足的患者受益。该SBIR I期是一项旨在评估尖端单细胞相互作用平台技术的提案，该技术具有加速发现免疫治疗药物的潜力，特别是双特异性T细胞免疫抑制剂（BiTE），这是一种经临床验证的双特异性抗体。BiTE由两个不同的结构域组成，可以同时结合T细胞靶标和肿瘤靶标。 BiTE将T细胞与肿瘤细胞连接起来的独特能力使它们能够表现出改善的特异性和功效，部分是通过一种新的作用模式，通过激活T细胞杀死肿瘤细胞。然而，BiTE的开发过程非常缓慢，限制了它们在广泛的毁灭性疾病中的临床应用。该领域经常出现的一个挑战是缺乏一个强大的平台，能够以具有成本效益的方式快速有效地确定领先的BiTE候选人。目前的提案旨在证明所提出的基于微流体的单细胞相互作用平台技术的技术和操作可行性，该技术可以直接询问许多单独的BiTE变体的功能，以区室化的分析格式。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。