TOPIC 414 : SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY GENE CIRCUITS FOR CANCER THERAPY

NIH RePORTER · NIH · N44 · $1,999,993 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

The therapeutic administration of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based cell therapies has considerably advanced the treatment of certain cancers. Unfortunately, the successes of CAR-based cell therapies have not yet translated to treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), likely due to the lack of a suitable lineage antigen target. Due to their nonrestrictive expression, most AML antigens are also expressed on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), and thus on-target/off-tumor effects of the therapy may lead to the ablation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, causing significant and life-threatening myelotoxicity and prolonged cytopenia. While there are currently dozens of clinical trials underway for various CAR-based therapies in AML patients, no treatment has yet demonstrated the ability to curb on-target/off-tumor killing of healthy HSCs.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10498679
Project number
75N91021C00026-0-9999-1
Recipient
SENTI BIOSCIENCES, INC.
Principal Investigator
GARY LEE
Activity code
N44
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2021
Award amount
$1,999,993
Award type
Project period
2021-08-01 → 2023-07-31