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Caribou Biosciences Selects ROR1 as the Target for CB-020, an iPSC-derived Allogeneic CAR-NK Cell Therapy
-- Data supporting selection of ROR1 for CB-020 and armoring strategies for Caribou’s CAR-NK cell platform to be presented at AACR-JCA Conference today -- --
About this update from Caribou Biosciences, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"-- Data supporting selection of ROR1 for CB-020 and armoring strategies for Caribou’s CAR-NK cell platform to be presented at AACR-JCA Conference today -- -- Caribou is using its chRDNA next-gen CRISPR technology to engineer and advance both CAR-NK and CAR-T cell therapy programs -- BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRBU), a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company, today announced target selection for CB-020, an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived allogeneic anti-ROR 1 (receptor tyrosine kinase like orphan receptor 1) CAR-NK cell therapy. Preclinical data on the selection of the CB-020 CAR construct and armoring strategies for Caribou’s CAR-NK cell platform will be presented today at the 12th American Association for Cancer Research and Japanese Cancer Association (AACR-JCA) Joint Conference. “ROR1 has been selected as the target for CB-020, Caribou’s first off-the-shelf iPSC-derived CAR-NK cell therapy, and the preclinical data presented at AACR-JCA shows that ROR1 may be a promising target for several solid tumor indications,” said Steve Kanner, Ph.D., Caribou’s chief scientific officer. “We are leveraging our chRDNA genome-editing technology across our allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell programs to address disease-specific challenges. For solid tumors, we are exploring several armoring strategies for our allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapy platform, including a CBLB knockout, a B2M knockout with a B2M–HLA-E fusion protein insertion, and a membrane-bound IL-15 insertion/IL-15RA fusion protein to help overcome the complex tumor microenvironment that has challenged previous cell therapies.” iPSC-derived NK cells innately exhibit potent antitumor activity against solid tumors. CB-020 is being engineered using Caribou’s Cas12a chRDNA genome-editing technology to express a ROR1-specific CAR, which can enhance the innate NK cell antitumor activity by increasing specificity and function. ROR1 is a cell signaling receptor that is overexpressed on the surface of several solid tumor types and has been shown to drive tumor cell growth, survival, and metastasis. Preclinical data to be presented at AACR-JCA show that a single dose of iPSC-derived anti-ROR1 CAR-NK cells, administered in a tumor xenograft model, significantly reduced tumor burden compared t...