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Letter from the Director 

The last couple of months have been characterized by the opening-up of society following two years of COVID-19 related challenges. This has resulted in the return of national and international colleagues to their respective workplaces, the opening up for travelling to “physical” international conferences as well as visits by international colleagues from other universities, health care units and industry.

Many of us in the NK cell immunotherapy field took part in the 2022 Innate Killer Summit in San Diego, at the end of March, which was attended by several hundred participants from academia, health care, biotech and industry. Notably, more than 100 companies were represented. Only a few weeks later, more than 450 researchers took part in NK2022, the 19th meeting of the Society for Natural Immunity, in Bonita Springs, Florida. Due to the interest in NK cell therapeutics, this meeting was preceded by a very exciting workshop, “NK cells in the clinic”, with participants from industry and academia.

Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Director

Photo: Ulf Sirborn

The industrial engagement in the development of novel NK cell-based immunotherapeutics against hematological and solid cancers is rapidly growing. Pursued strategies are based on allogeneic products, many of which have an “off-the-shelf“ potential, and autologous products. Both types of products have their respective strengths and weaknesses. With respect to the allogeneic products, many of them are currently iPSC derived. The latter strategy offers near unlimited possibilities for “off-the-shelf” production as well as potential for extensive genetic engineering, with both elimination of molecules hampering effector function and addition of molecules enhancing functionality.

This said, it is still evident that many products are still to be introduced in clinical trials while others are only at best in the early stages of trials (mostly at Phase I and some at Phase II). No NK cell product has been commercialized to date. It is difficult to predict when this will first happen, but is it not unlikely that we will see the first commercial NK cell-based products on the market in three to four years from now.

The development of commercial NK cell-based products is taking place also in Sweden. The Stockholm (Huddinge) based company XNK Therapeutics has recently taken several exciting steps in their development. XNK is at the forefront of the development of autologous NK cell-based products using its proprietary technology platform. Within the framework of the NextGenNK Competence Center, the company’s lead investigational candidate drug is currently being evaluated in combination with Sanofi’s anti-CD38 antibody Sarclisa (Isatuximab) in a randomized Phase II clinical study in multiple myeloma. Recently, Flerie Invest led a 132 million (SEK) financing round by investing 100 million (SEK) in the company. It is really exciting to see this development in Sweden, especially given the role Swedish scientists have had in the discovery and early work on NK cells.

With this fifth NextGenNK newsletter, I wish everyone inside and outside the field of NK cell research and development a very nice summer.

Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Director

Photo: xx

Under the heading "Spotlight," we present Partners involved in the NextGenNK Competence Center.
Vycellix is a Tampa, Unites States, based immuno-centric discovery life science company. The company specializes in advancing the development of transformational platform technologies to enhance and optimize next-generation cell & gene-based therapies, including T cell and Natural Killer (NK) cell-based cancer therapies. For more info, please visit Vycellix's website.

Tell us about your research

In my research I aim to generate and test genetically modified NK cells with the goal to use these as a clinical cell therapy product against cancer in the future. The genetic modifications include receptors that help NK cells to specifically recognize and eliminate malignant cells, but also some that induce resistance against immune-mediated depletion.

What is the best part of your job?

I am fascinated by how cells work and communicate. So being able to read and contemplate about this, formulating hypotheses and discussing them with colleagues and collaborators and ultimately testing some of them is a big part of why I like being a researcher. Another angle is that one can train and become good in a certain area, use that expertise on a daily basis, but still never do exactly the same thing, so there’s always the aspect of doing something new and meaningful. Apart from the scientific part, I like working with personal development and training people. Observing others develop their skills and intensifying their fascination for science and being able to guide this process if just a little bit, is really motivating.

Arnika Wagner, PhD
Photo: Emma Karlsson