Shoreline Biosciences announced the presentation of data at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, taking place from April 8-13, 2022.  Shoreline presented two posters demonstrating its novel methodologies to produce clinical scale iPSC-derived iNK cells.

Shoreline has developed a proprietary methodology to create differentiated iNK cells for large-scale, "off-the-shelf" production.  Shoreline's methodology supports the production of phenotypically and functionally mature iNK cells from both wildtype and genetically engineered iPSCs.  In particular, the generation of iPSC-derived NK cells bearing a knock-out of the gene encoding cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein (CISH) was described at the AACR meeting. Shoreline's CISH-KO iNK cells have demonstrated improved in vivo anti-tumor activity, persistence, metabolic fitness, and resistance to cell exhaustion.

To improve the targeting and potency of its iNK cells, Shoreline has also developed a proprietary Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) screening platform to identify CARs that function optimally in NK cells. Compared to CARs developed for T cells and transferred into NK cells, Shoreline's NK-optimized CARs yield significantly increased tumor killing activity.

"The presentations at AACR 2022 on our CISH-KO iNK cells and natural killer-optimized CARs demonstrate our sophisticated expertise in iPSC differentiation, gene editing, and CAR-NK development. This technology is being applied to multiple therapeutic programs, and along with our partnerships with Kite and BeiGene, serves as the basis for our strong pipeline of novel cancer therapies," said Robert Hollingsworth, Ph.D., CSO of Shoreline.  "Our differentiated approaches improve upon existing CAR-NK and CAR-T technologies, and we are continuing to optimize our cell therapies for potency, durability, and safety.  We are excited to advance these therapies into clinical testing and eventually provide important new options for cancer patients."