Engimmune is coupling protein engineering with AI to develop optimal soluble TCR therapeutics. Soluble TCR drugs redirect the body’s own immune system to recognise and destroy tumour cells. Engimmune programs offers therapeutic potential in lung cancer and in liver cancer with no safety concerns.

Engimmune Therapeutics is a world-class developer of highly targeted, highly potent ‘off-the-shelf’ soluble TCR drugs to treat solid tumours. Its cutting-edge proprietary platform technologies enable it to rapidly identify and engineer stable, soluble, multi-specific TCRs that have extremely high affinity for target cancer antigens and trigger a potent and durable anti-cancer immune response, without causing damage to healthy cells (i.e., with low cross-reactivity) and high safety. Engimmune is also able to exploit its technology to identify novel, low competition TCR targets that address both cell surface proteins and the 85% of intracellular proteins that antibodies cannot access.

Its unique platforms – which utilise genome editing, deep sequencing, functional screening and machine learning / artificial intelligence approaches – give Engimmune the ability to overcome, with one toolset, the full range of efficacy and safety challenges that have historically limited the full potential of TCR therapies. Engimmune is a spin-off company of ETH Zurich and has Pureos Bioventures (Switzerland) and Novo Holdings (Denmark) as investors.

Engimmune Therapeutics is a world-leader in identifying highly targeted, highly potent ‘off-the-shelf’ soluble T-cell receptors (TCRs), with breakthrough potential for treating solid tumours.

• Soluble TCRs are an emerging, but clinically validated, modality with particular utility for treating solid tumours
• Soluble TCRs can target both surface proteins (which comprise ~15% of the human proteome) and intracellular proteins (which comprise the other ~85%) – thus massively expanding the universe of potential targets 
• This raises the chance of finding suitable, cancer-specific targets which can be used to treat solid tumours
• By contrast, bispecific antibodies (and types of CAR-T cell therapy which rely on antibody-like receptors as part of their binding mechanism / ‘moiety’) can only target surface proteins – which has resulted in antibodies and these type of CAR-T therapies having little success in tackling solid tumous to date
• Soluble TCRs engineered using Engimmune’s technologies offer a unique mode of action with key advantages over antibody-based therapies: the unique combination of very strong target binding, remarkable specificity and engagement of low copy targets translates into better tumour infiltration properties and prolonged retention of the drug at the tumour site, both of which are crucial parameters for achieving effective redirection of the immune response against solid tumours.  

Engimmune’s cutting-edge proprietary platform technologies enable it to rapidly identify and engineer stable, soluble, multi-specific TCRs that have extremely high affinity for target cancer antigens 

• Holistic approach to developing TCRs  from target identification, through “affinity maturation” (i.e. amending promising molecules to maximise how attracted they are to target antigens), to protein stabilisation (so the molecules don’t easily degrade) and safety screening (to ensure they do not cause off-tumour effects).
• Safety first – unique technology enables Engimmune to screen for unexpected off-tumour effects at the start of the process – producing highly de-risked products early on, thus saving time and money. This is called “specificity-guided affinity maturation”.
• Its platform, which utilises  genome editing, functional screening, deep sequencing and AI, can overcome every challenge in the process of developing safe and potent soluble TCR drugs.  

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