Paul-Ehrlich-Institut

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T2EVOLVE: Al­liance for Rapid Ad­vance­ment in Can­cer Therapy

T2EVOLVE is an alliance of leading academic and industrial actors in cancer immunotherapy formed in January 2021 as part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) of the European Union. The aim of T2EVOLVE is to accelerate the development and the access of cancer patients to immunotherapy with reprogrammed immune cells. The way in which this reprogramming takes place is the use of genetically modified T-cell receptors (TCRs) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).

A tumour cell (left: cell core: blue, cell surface: green) is combated by a reprogrammed immune cell (right: synthetic chimeric antigen receptor, CAR: yellow). A tumour cell (left: cell core: blue, cell surface: green) is combated by a reprogrammed immune cell (right: synthetic chimeric antigen receptor, CAR: yellow). Source: University Hospital of Würzburg

The T-cell therapy, which is based on genetic engineering methods, is an innovative treatment option for cancers in which immune cells of a patient are reprogrammed in such a way that they search for cancer cells and destroy them. A known example refers to CAR-T cell therapeutics already authorised in the EU for leukaemia treatment. Such therapies have the potential that in future, they can also be developed successfully against other types of cancer as well as infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.

For each type of cancer, the T-cell treatment has to be adapted in the research laboratory, and, after GMP-compliant manufacture, undergo the required non-clinical and clinical steps of development. The innovation pipeline of the research groups in Europe is filled with such novel T-cell concepts, but the implementation of the medicines concepts in clinical trials (translation) and the concrete product development up to the marketing authorisation and introduction to the market are time-consuming and require a high amount of resources. T2EVOLVE is designed to contribute to accelerating the processes necessary to achieve this.

The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut participates in the EU project T2EVOLVE in the field of research and concepts in the laboratory and in animal models as well as in the development of suitable tools for identifying and assessing therapeutics, which are based on genetically modified T-cells. As the federal institute responsible for testing the quality, safety, and efficacy of biomedicines in Germany and Europe, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut also provides valuable regulatory support for a targeted development. The activities of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut are performed under the management of PD Dr Zoltan Ivics, Professor Dr Christian Buchholz and PD Dr Matthias Renner, scientists in Division Medical Biotechnology of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut.

Updated: 08.02.2021