Artec Biotech, a company in Â鶹ӰÒô’s Helix 51 Incubator, is developing a potentially promising treatment for (GBM), a deadly cancer for which patients have few if any therapeutic alternatives.
Artec is a developer of technology to convert stem cells to natural killer (NK) cells, which are less toxic and more efficient than other platforms for cellular immunotherapy. The company joined Helix 51, the first of its kind in Lake County, Illinois, in 2022.
“Â鶹ӰÒô is helping scientists make the leap from discovery to commercialization of urgently needed new therapeutics,” said Ronald Kaplan, PhD, executive vice president for research. “We’re offering the affordable wet-lab space and supportive programming that young companies need to grow, garner investment and translate their research into effective treatments for difficult-to-treat diseases.”
The company’s novel therapeutic approach — creating NK cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to target GBM — is outlined in “,” in the journal OncoImmunology.
The publication is the result of a collaborative study among Artec investigators and researchers from several institutions including: Â鶹ӰÒô’s Clinical Immunology Lab; Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute of Lurie Children’s Hospital; Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine; Emory University; and the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
“Our research assessed the authenticity, efficacy and toxicity of hPSCs-NK in vitro and in vivo, revealing advantages over peripheral blood-derived NK cells that include diminished checkpoint inhibition signaling and enhanced metabolic gene expression,” said Artec Co-Founder and CEO Vasiliy Galat, PhD. “It also showed significant efficacy against cancers like leukemias and lymphoma, in addition to GBM.”
Unlike CAR-T cells, which are customized for individual patients, NK cells can be transferred between patients, making them a potentially universal treatment. They do not attack healthy cells in another individual, and they do not induce cytokine storms. Their role, as part of the innate immune system, is to kill unhealthy and virally infected cells and eliminate early signs of cancer. NK cells — both natural and engineered — are safer, more patient-friendly and represent the next wave of cancer therapy.