UCSF의 Tobias Deuse 교수와 Kyoto University Shin Kaneko 교수팀은 2023년 Cell Stem Cell에 Synthetic Immune Checkpoint Engagers를 이용해서 Innate Immune Cell Cytotoxicity를 감소시킬 수 있다는 논문을 발표했습니다.

같은 해에 Kyoto University의 Shin Kaneko교수팀은 mini-TCRs에 대한 논문을 Molecular Therapey에 발표하였다. mini-TCRs (또는 truncated TCRs)를 이용해서 iPSC로 부터 T cells를 만들어낼 수 있었습니다.

그리고 2024년 Blood에 BCMA-Specific iPS Cell을 Editing해서 CD8ɑβ iPS-TCR을 만들어서 Multiple Myeloma를 치료할 수 있다는 가능성을 보여주었습니다.

이 두 기술을 접목시켜서 Katana Platform을 만들었습니다. 회사의 간단한 설명에 의하면 induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cell을 Editing해서 CD8ɑβ iPS-T master cell bank를 만들고 이것을 이용해 다양한 표적에 사용할 수 있다는 것입니다.

Shinobi Therapeutics Launches with Completion of $51M Series A to Advance Hypoimmune iPS-T Cell Therapy Platform – PR Newswire 12/12/2023

Shinobi Therapeutics (Shinobi), the biotechnology company developing a new class of immune evasive iPS-T cell therapies, today announced that it has closed a $51 million Series A financing. The oversubscribed round was led by EQT Life Sciences, F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads Ventures Japan, with participation from Astellas Venture Management, Fast Track Initiative (FTI), JIC Venture Growth Investments, and D3 LLC. Shinobi will use the funds to advance its ‘Katana’ iPS-T cell therapy platform and progress its first program to treat GPC3+ solid tumor cancers toward the clinic.

“We’re thrilled to launch Shinobi out of stealth with a clear mission to develop an all-in-one solution to address some of the biggest challenges facing the cell therapy space today,” said Dan Kemp, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Shinobi. “Having led several cell therapy programs at other global companies, I’ve never encountered a technology platform that is capable of advancing the field as dramatically as this.”

Cell therapies have shown remarkable promise in treating blood cancers and other intractable diseases, but manufacturing costs render these therapies inaccessible to many patients around the world. Off-the-shelf cell therapies offer a more scalable manufacturing approach, but face the additional challenge of allo-rejection, as patients’ immune systems reject donor-derived and engineered cells as foreign invaders. To overcome this immune response, patients today receive immunosuppressive drugs before treatment, which can often result in unwanted side effects and serious complications. Shinobi is taking a different approach by creating therapies that work with, not against, the patient’s immune system.

Shinobi’s unique approach uses methods developed by scientific co-founders Tobias Deuse, M.D. and Shin Kaneko, M.D., Ph.D., to first edit iPSCs to become highly immune evasive before they are differentiated with the company’s proprietary Katana technology to create CD8αβ iPS-T cells. “Shinobi’s Katana platform has the potential to make CAR-T cell therapies accessible to patients on a global scale,” said Carl June, M.D., who has been appointed to Shinobi’s Scientific Advisory Board.

“Shinobi stands alone in the growing cell therapy field by engineering the most comprehensive immune evasion technology directly into its cell products,” said Robert Weisskoff, Ph.D, Partner at F-Prime Capital. “With our colleagues at Eight Roads Ventures Japan and Donald Payan M.D., we envisioned combining the decade’s worth of iPSC research pioneered by Shin Kaneko M.D., Ph.D and developed by Yasumichi Hitoshi M.D., Ph.D. and Ryosuke Gonotsubo in Kyoto, Japan, with breakthrough immune evasion technology created by Tobias Deuse, M.D. in San Francisco. Shinobi Therapeutics is the result of these merged technologies, which delivers an allogeneic platform that effectively protects cell therapies from T cells, innate immune cells, as well as antibody-mediated immune rejection.“

“The full potential of allogeneic cell therapies will likely never be realized without overcoming the challenge of allo-rejection,” said Fouad Azzam, Ph.D., Partner at EQT Life Sciences. “Shinobi’s hypoimmune technology opens the door to a broader pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapies far beyond T cells and oncology. We’re planning to leverage this platform in important areas of regenerative medicine and autoimmune disease.”

About Shinobi Therapeutics

Shinobi Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing a new class of off-the-shelf immune evasive iPSC-derived cell therapies. Based on the research of scientific co-founders Shin Kaneko, M.D., Ph.D., at Kyoto University and Tobias Deuse, M.D., at University of California, San Francisco, Shinobi has created a new allogeneic CD8αβ iPS-T cell platform that demonstrates comprehensive immune evasion from all arms of the immune system. For more information, please visit www.shinobitx.com.

홈페이지에 나온 파이프라인은 아래와 같습니다.

Solid Tumor 뿐만 아니라 Autoimmune Disease와 Type 1 Diabetes 등에도 적용할 수 있도록 개발하고 있습니다. 많이 기대가 됩니다.