Benzinga | Apr 12, 2021 10:26AM EDT

Allogene Therapeutics Saturday Morning Announced Preclinical Research Highlighting Novel TurboCAR T Cell Technology Designed To Overcome Immune Suppression In Solid Tumors At American Association For Cancer Research Conference

Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T(tm)) therapies for cancer, today announced preclinical data at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting that expands the utility of its TurboCAR(tm) technology platform to address specific biology of solid tumor oncology.

Allogene's internally-developed TurboCAR technology platform is capable of delivering cytokine activation signaling selectively to CAR T cells. As the potential next generation of AlloCAR T therapies, TurboCARs can be tailored with signaling domains from different cytokine receptors to enhance T cell activation and potentially improve efficacy, overcome exhaustion, and reduce cell dose requirements. The data presented at AACR demonstrate the ability to engineer PD1 TurboCARs which confer cytokine signaling that is inducible upon binding to PDL1/2 in the tumor microenvironment or when stimulated with an anti-PD1 antibody. In addition to supplying cytokine signaling, these TurboCARs are designed to overcome the inherent challenges in solid tumors associated with the immuno-suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and turn the suppressive signals into positive signals.

"We are very excited about the potential to expand our TurboCAR technology platform to maximize its impact in allogeneic cell therapy. We believe our preclinical findings shared at AACR represent a powerful differentiator that will allow Allogene to remain at the forefront of innovation in both hematologic cancers and solid tumors," said Barbra Sasu, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Allogene.

Title: PD1 TurboCAR(tm) T cells: PD1-resistant CAR T cells with programmable cytokine signaling outputs

Date: April 10, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. ET

E-Poster Session: Immunology

Session Title: Adoptive Cell Therapy

Abstract Number: 1519