I am the founder and CEO of Unum Therapeutics, which develops novel cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer. Unum has developed an Antibody-Coupled T-cell Receptor (ACTR) that enables a patient’s T cells to be targeted to attack tumor cells via a co-administered tumor-specific antibody. Clinical proof-of-concept for ACTR has been provided in an ongoing clinical study in which patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma were treated with the combination of ACTR T cells and rituximab, a CD20-specific antibody. Clinical trials are also underway or initiating shortly to test ACTR T cells in multiple myeloma, breast cancer, and gastric cancer. Recent research has focused on engineering T cells to overcome the tumor microenvironment that often compromises their activity. By expressing selected transgenes, we expect to enhance activity in solid tumors, enabling T cell therapies to be effective in a broader range of cancers.
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