Cellinfinity Bio Announces Publication and Licensing of Key Technology for Directed Evolution of Cells That Allows for More Effective Adoptive Cell Therapy

WEST HAVEN, Conn. & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cellinfinity Bio Inc, a privately held pioneer biotechnology company developing first/best-in-class cell therapy products against solid tumors and other diseases, today announced the publication of CLASH (CRISPR-based Library-scale AAV perturbation with Simultaneous HDR knock-in), a platform that for the first time enables massively parallel genomic knock-in into human cells. This technology is published in Nature Biotechnology on January 26. CLASH allows creation of a large library of precisely engineered cellular variants, enabling rapid and efficient selection of cells with desired properties for effective engineered cell therapies against variety of diseases. Cellinfinity Bio has an exclusive license of the published CLASH technology from Yale University.

“The founding vision of Cellinfinity Bio is that we believe cells have infinite potential to cure human diseases,” said Sidi Chen, Ph.D., Founder of Cellinfinity Bio and Associate Professor of Genetics, Yale University. “We develop highly versatile platforms such as CLASH and other technologies to engineer multiple types of primary human cells in order to bring advanced treatments to patients.”

“Current CAR-T or CAR-NK therapies have major limitations and are generally not effective in patients with solid tumors. Our proprietary unbiased evolution technologies such as CLASH allow us to find universal modifications that can overcome many problems of current adoptive cell therapy, including poor tumor infiltration, immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and poor cell persistence,” said Premal Patel, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Cellinfinity Bio. “Furthermore, we can effectively evolve and engineer multiple other cell types, allowing development of next generation cell therapy against broad ailments.” Cellinfinity Bio holds exclusive rights to the CLASH technology and the identified genetic modifications. The company has licensed other novel cell evolution technologies from Yale, such as a genome-wide gain-of-function screening platform for boosting T cell function developed in the Chen lab.

“An antigen-targeting receptor on T cells (e.g., TCR, CAR, etc.) is necessary but not sufficient for effective therapeutic activity against solid tumors in the setting of adoptive immunotherapy. Additional genetic modifications are required to endow immune cells with functional attributes to overcome the solid tumor microenvironment. Our unbiased genome-wide evolution technologies, including CLASH, have identified series of gene enhancements that substantially enhance the power of immune cells to kill cancers,” said Margo Roberts, Ph.D., and Chief Scientific Advisor, Cellinfinity Bio. “We are rapidly advancing these next generation engineered cells towards the clinic.”

About Cellinfinity Bio

Cellinfinity Bio is a privately-owned company that is focused on elevating the current standards of cell therapy against solid tumors and other diseases. By leveraging proprietary, directed evolution of cells, Cellinfinity identifies genetic modifications and CAR constructs that substantially improve engineered T-cell and NK-cell function against solid tumors. Cellinfinity develops both first-in-class and best-in-class cell therapy products with the goal to benefit diverse patient populations with unmet medical needs.

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