Tech Transfer Roundup: MD Anderson, Replay Found Allogeneic TCR-NK Cell Therapy Play Syena

Start-up hopes to bring its first candidate, an NY-ESO-1-targeting off-the-shelf product, into the clinic in Q2. Astex and Cardiff University team up on novel therapies for neurodegenerative disease.

Tech Transfer
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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and US/UK biotech Replay announced on 14 February that they are launching a new company, Syena, to advance research conducted at the cancer center on a first-in-class approach to T-cell receptor (TCR) natural killer (NK) cell therapy. Syena plans to initiate a Phase I/II study during the second quarter that will enroll patients with multiple myeloma or sarcoma that express the NY-ESO-1 antigen.

Katy Rezvani, the new company’s scientific founder and a stem cell therapy professor and researcher at MD Anderson, told Scrip that they believe they will be the first therapy of...

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