Curate Biosciences and City of Hope Evaluate Innovative Cell Separation for HIV CAR-T Cell Therapy Production

 As one of Curate's Technology Access Program collaborators, City of Hope validated the Curate® Cell Processing System

CARLSBAD, Calif., April 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Curate Biosciences, a key enabling technology company for cell therapy manufacturing, announced the first outcome of its Technology Access Program, which is dedicated to converting research into real-world treatments and cures as rapidly as possible. City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, has evaluated the Curate® Cell Processing System for advanced cell separation and plans to integrate the platform into its workflow to manufacture investigational CAR-T cell immunotherapy.

Autologous cell therapy manufacturers have long struggled to reliably source enough high-quality, therapeutically active cells from patients to engineer a therapy. The challenge is even greater for immunocompromised patients, where current methods to isolate high quantities of T cells are often inefficient, manual labor-intensive and cumbersome.

The Curate® Cell Processing System offers an automated, fast and simple solution to cell separation, which can deliver more biologically potent cells for revolutionary cell therapy treatments. Curate Biosciences' cell separation platform has the potential to enable up to a 50% reduction in the total cost of autologous cell therapy production and a significant reduction in the days required to produce a CAR-T dose. Compared with traditional centrifugal methods, the Curate System more than doubles the recovery of patient-derived white blood cells and CD3+ T cell subsets – often decreased following HIV infection – with exceptional purity in a single-step, closed microfluidic system.

"The Curate® technology has been evaluated by the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope as part of a new process for production of genetically engineered immune cells. High cell viability, recovery of critical cell subsets, significant time savings, and potential for integration in a closed-system platform were specifications that were evaluated for the Curate® system," said Angelo Cardoso, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Laboratory of Cellular Medicine (LCM) at City of Hope.

"Dr. Cardoso and the team at City of Hope are cell therapy pioneers, and we're excited to move into the next phase of our support of their programs following their validation of our Curate Cell Processing System," said Mike Grisham, Curate Biosciences' Chief Executive Officer. "Hopes are high for autologous cell therapies, which have already been shown to be curative in some patients with cancer. Through our Technology Access Program, leading biopharma companies and CDMOs as well as world-class academic centers such as City of Hope are able to see directly the benefit that the Curate System can play in the development of these therapies by providing the highest quality starting material, demonstrating broad applicability of our platform ahead of our commercialization later this year."

About Curate Biosciences

Curate Biosciences (formerly GPB Scientific, Inc.) enables virtually lossless cell processing, radically changing the outcomes and economics landscape of cell therapy. The Curate® Cell Processing System applies Deterministic Cell Separation™ (DCS) technology, through a benchtop system and single-use cartridges optimized for T cell isolation. Designed with both manufacturing and clinical potential at the forefront, the Curate® System enables production of CAR-T and other cell therapies beyond today's limitations. Curate Biosciences has strong venture financing from Amgen Ventures, Vensana Capital, and other major healthcare investors and is advancing application of its DCS technology to target additional cell types, disease states, and workflows.

For more information, please visit www.curatebio.com

Media Contact: 
Consort Partners for Curate Biosciences
[email protected]

SOURCE Curate Biosciences