ARTICLE | Product Development
Remote controlled CARs
Intrexon, Ziopharm & MD Anderson assemble remote-controlled multi-gene CAR kit
February 2, 2015 8:00 AM UTC
A three-way deal between Intrexon Corp., Ziopharm Oncology Inc. and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center aims to tackle at least two of the major challenges for CAR and T cell-based immunotherapies that KOLs identified at the SciBXSummit on Innovation in Drug Discovery and Development in 2013: improving understanding of safety and interactions with the tumor microenvironment.
The crux of the deal is the combination of a non-viral mutagenesis method known as Sleeping Beauty from MD Anderson with a remote control switch provided by Intrexon's RheoSwitch technology. Ziopharm has rights to commercialize DNA-based therapeutics using Intrexon's technology under a 2011 deal...