NextGenNK - Newsletter 1/2020
|
|
|
|
|
This is the first newsletter from the NextGenNK Competence Center (CC). NextGenNK is a Sweden’s Innovation Agency (Vinnova) funded CC for the development of next generation NK cell-based cancer immunotherapies. The CC is coordinated by Karolinska Institutet (KI) and collaborates with the Karolinska University Hospital (health care Partner) and national as well as international SME and industrial Partners. The CC has been in full operation since January 2020.
The core of the CC is located at the new KI, ANA Futura laboratories, at the KI Flemingsberg Campus. At this site, the CC’s leadership including its Director Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, co-Director Evren Alici, co-Director Kalle Malmberg (part time), Scientific Coordinator Carin Dahlberg, and Regulatory and Quality Assurance Coordinator Kelly Grahn have their administrative base. The CC’s central research and development laboratories are also located at this site. The laboratories are located in direct proximity to the CC Partner Karolinska University Hospital.
|
|
|
|
|
The governance of the NextGenNK CC is controlled by its Executive Board and ultimately its General Assembly, the latter encompassing representatives from all Partners. The Competence Center’s Executive Board had two initial meetings (April and June), and is scheduled to meet at least four times a year. The Executive Board protocols as well as General Assembly protocols will be uploaded to the CC’s homepage following approval.
Since the start in January 2020, NextGenNK has been involved in a number of activities including select Partners’ and scientific advisors’ visits to the CC’s main office and laboratories, participation in local ATMP meetings, and held regular meetings with industrial Partners. Immediate forth coming activities of the CC include an industrial outreach-conference planned for August, and a Partner conference in October 2020. Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the CC has managed to start up full or near-full activity. Interruptions have essentially been limited to the cancellation of an inaugural seminar planned for April 2020, and partial shutdown of some international Partners' laboratories.
In line with set-out work-package strategies, the CC has made key investments in technologies and equipment, including investments in the novel ANA Futura pre-GMP laboratory. Investments include an IncuCyte, a nanoparticle tracking analyzer, and tangential flow filtration devices. Additionally, a dedicated NextGenNK laboratory has been setup in the ANA Futura pre-GMP laboratory.
With respect to industrial collaborations, the CC is in active collaboration with Partners Avectas, CellProtect Nordic Pharmaceuticals AB, Morphogenesis Inc., Sanofi AB, Vycellix Inc., and Zelluna Immunotherapy AS. The NextGenNK CC Partner, the Flemingsberg-based CellProtect Nordic Pharmaceuticals AB, has gone through a significant development and a recent rebranding to XNK Therapeutics AB.
With respect to health care (society) collaborations, the CC has been in active collaboration and/or interaction with the Karolinska University Hospital, its Hematology Center, its Center for Cell Therapy and Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, its Core Facility Vecura operating under the umbrella organization Karolinska Cell Therapy Center (KCC). All of these and other Karolinska University Hospital units include key components for clinical development of next-generation NK cell-based immunotherapy products.
|
|
|
|
|
The current mission is to reach-out to all Governance bodies, Partners, and collaborators in the NextGenNK CC with this type of newsletter with continuous updates on performed activities and future plans.
Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
With respect to research and development within the NextGenNK Competence Center, several developing areas of importance for next-generation NK cell-based immunotherapies have been developed including strategies to generate immune-privileged universal cells obviating the need for immune-suppressive drugs in contexts of allogeneic cell therapies, the development of small molecules to enhance gene modification rates for cells in context of cellular immunotherapies, strategies to obtain shorter production times of cellular immunotherapies to patients, and strategies to amplify serial tumor-killing capacity of T cells and NK cells.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To facilitate outreach and communication, the Competence Center has established a home page. It contains press releases, updated calendar with activities listed, etc. The Competence Center is about to establish a Twitter and LinkedIn account. In an additional ambition to reach out, the Competence Center aims towards publishing a newsletter two to three times per year. The Competence Center's office can be contacted via e-mail, nextgennk@ki.se, or directly to any of the Directors or administrative coordinators.
|
|
|
The Competence Center is in active collaborations with select industrial partners and health care to develop new clinical trials. The latter includes the initiation of a novel academic allogeneic adaptive NK cell-based Phase I/II clinical trial expected to be launched in 2021, and a randomized academic clinical trial with an autologous NK cell-based product in combination with a tumor specific monoclonal antibody, which is expected to be initiated in 2021.
|
|
|
|
|
The vision of the NextGenNK Competence Center is to transform tomorrow’s means of treating cancer by innovative and affordable NK cell-based immunotherapies developed in collaboration with SME/industry and health care, and thereby, contribute towards making Sweden one of the global leaders in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Novel immunotherapies have the potential to transform current medical practice, with the intent to treat, manage, and potentially cure some of the most debilitating and costly diseases. As such, we aim to contribute to the development of a new strong segment in the Swedish Life Science Industry.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
