# Engineered TCR-Treg Cell Therapies Targeting Type 1 Diabetes Autoantigens

> **NIH NIH R43** · GIGAMUNE, INC. · 2023 · $55,000

## Abstract

Executive Summary of Predicate SBIR Phase I Grant and Team
Project Title: Engineered TCR-Treg Cell Therapies Targeting Type 1 Diabetes Autoantigens
Organization: GigaMune Inc.
PI: Matthew J Spindler, Ph.D.
Engineered adoptive cell therapies including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) and T cell receptor (TCR-T) cell
therapies have shown strong clinical responses in cancer patients with five FDA approved CAR-T cell therapies
for hematological cancers and numerous TCR-T cell clinical trials ongoing for the treatment of solid tumors.
These new drugs have all leveraged engineered cytotoxic T cells and are designed to directly kill cancer cells.
In contrast to cytotoxic T cells, Tregs function to locally suppress immune responses through antigen-specific
activity. TCR engineered regulatory T cells (TCR-Tregs) could be used for the treatment of patients with
autoimmune disorders, not for killing target cells but rather for preventing cells from being killed. However, in
order to develop engineered TCR-Treg cell therapies, there is a critical need in identifying autoantigen reactive
TCRs to specifically direct Treg activity into pancreatic islets where they can locally suppress the autoreactive
cytotoxic T cells causing disease pathology.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) autoantigens, including preproinsulin, IA-2, and GAD65, are ideal TCR-Treg cell targets
as they are specifically expressed in pancreatic islets and beta (b)-cells. These autoantigens are commonly
targeted by CD4 and CD8 T cells in T1D patients with peptide epitopes presented across many HLA alleles.
Importantly, recent studies have demonstrated that TCR clonotypes isolated from CD8+ T cells can redirect Treg
suppressive activity to class I HLA presented peptides. This suggests that engineered TCR-Tregs targeting T1D
autoantigens could suppress autoreactive cytotoxic T cells within the pancreatic islets. Therefore, a catalog of
TCR-Treg cell therapies targeting T1D autoantigens across different HLA alleles would provide a broadly
effective treatment for T1D patients.
The Specific Aim of the R43AI170407 Phase I SBIR project is to develop a catalog of natural human TCRs that
target T1D autoantigens for use in TCR-engineered Treg cell therapies. GigaMune's unique technology uses
microfluidics, genomics, and mammalian display to generate millions-diverse, natively paired TCRab repertoire
libraries. The TCRab libraries are immortal, enabling repeated experimentation with a panel of antigens. This
will expedite discovery of rare anti-T1D TCRs. The project recently started in late 2022 and we have no technical
progress to report. After completing this Phase I SBIR project, GigaMune will further develop promising TCRs
as TCR-Treg cell therapies, through in vivo efficacy studies, in vitro safety studies, and manufacturing
development.
The R43AI170407 I-Corps Supplement is led by GigaMune co-founder Dr. Matthew J. Spindler, an expert in
immunogenomics and inventor of the GigaMune technology and supported by ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10764143
- **Project number:** 3R43AI170407-01A1S1
- **Recipient organization:** GIGAMUNE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew James Spindler
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $55,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2023-05-03 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10764143

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10764143, Engineered TCR-Treg Cell Therapies Targeting Type 1 Diabetes Autoantigens (3R43AI170407-01A1S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10764143. Licensed CC0.

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