Akron Biotech was proud to be a sponsor of this year’s Innate Killer Summit held in San Diego, California. The Innate Killer Summit is the leading, dedicated end-to-end meeting serving as a catalyst to ensure successful clinical and commercial translation of NK cell immunotherapies. The most current and advanced clinical data was presented as well
Current immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer exploit engineered T cells, a lymphocyte of the adaptive immune system. An alternative avenue is utilizing the major players of the innate immune system — natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells are innate lymphocytes that express activating receptors, including the NK group 2D (NKG2D) receptor. These NKG2D receptors
TiGenix and Takeda announced that the European Commission (EC) has approved Alofisel (darvadstrocel) for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in adult patients with nonactive/mildly active luminal Crohn’s disease, marking the first allogeneic stem cell therapy to receive central marketing authorization approval in Europe. Crohn’s disease is a chronic condition that causes intestinal inflammation. A
With the FDA approval of Kymriah to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Yescarta to treat B-cell lymphoma, immunotherapy for cancer is becoming increasingly common. These existing therapies are systemically delivered and are not necessarily tumor-specific. This systemic administration can have major side effects by stimulating the activity of the entire immune system, not just
In a special report published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 8th, Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., and Scott Gottlieb, M.D. of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provide an overview of the regulatory context for regenerative medicine and outline the ways in which the agency has expedited the development of new
In 2017, the FDA approved two immunotherapies based on a patient’s own genetically modified T-cells — Kymriah to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Yescarta to treat B-cell lymphoma. These therapies rely on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells which consist of collecting a patient’s own immune cells, engineering them to target a specific marker, and
Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a cytokine critical to effector T cell expansion, survival, and function. Importantly, IL-2 is supplemented in the production of T cells for immunotherapy, including CAR-T cell therapies. While IL-2 can improve T cell survival and efficacy, IL-2 provokes a wide range of responses by simultaneously activating and repressing different components of the
Organoids are 3D in vitro cell cultures that represent simplified versions of an organ that capture the key architecture, functionality, and genetic features of original tissues. Patient-derived cancer organoids are one variation that can be derived from primary patient tumors and studied in the laboratory. These patient-derived organoids (PDOs) have served as preclinical models of
The Innate Killer Summit is the leading, dedicated end-to-end meeting serving as the catalyst to ensure successful clinical and commercial translation of Natural Killer (NK) cell immunotherapies. Leading up to the March 2018 event in San Diego, CA, Akron Biotechnology CEO Claudia Zylberberg, Ph.D. shared some key issues and questions arising in the NK therapy
The kidney is an essential organ that eliminates waste from the human body by processing the blood supplied to it and removing waste via the production of urine. According to the United States Renal Data Service 2015 Annual Data Report, more than 661,000 Americans have kidney failure. Of these, 468,000 individuals are on dialysis, and
