Imagine your immune cells have an 'off-switch' that cancer flips to hide from the body. Current drugs try to block the finger pressing that switch, but some cancers don't even use a finger. This technology instead brings a 'reset button' directly to the switch to turn the immune cells back on, regardless of how the cancer is trying to hide.
Many cancer patients do not respond to current immune checkpoint inhibitors because their tumors lack the necessary ligands. This creates a massive unmet need for therapies that can reactivate immune cells without relying on those ligands.
A technology platform for RIPR molecules and a portfolio of candidate molecules that recruit phosphatases to shut down inhibitory receptor signaling.
If you are a drug developer dealing with patients who do not respond to current PD-1 or CTLA-4 therapies — this project developed RIPR molecules that reactivate exhausted T and NK cells even when tumors lack specific ligands. This expands the treatable patient population for immune-based therapies.
If you are a protein engineering firm dealing with the difficulty of designing targeted immune modulators — this project developed a technology platform for off-the-shelf RIPR designs. This allows for the rapid creation of therapeutics targeting various phosphotyrosine-carrying receptors.
If you are a clinic dealing with disease relapse and therapy resistance in cancer patients — this project developed a method to shut down inhibitory receptor signaling. This provides a new tool to treat patients for whom current blockade treatments are ineffective.
Based on available project data, the EU contribution is EUR 2,896,496, but the commercial price per dose or license is not specified.
The project focuses on defining design principles and delivering a technology platform for off-the-shelf designs, but industrial manufacturing scale-up data is not provided.
Based on available project data, the project is in the research and proof-of-concept phase; specific patents or licensing terms are not listed.
The project period runs from 2023-05-01 to 2028-04-30, indicating it is currently in the development and validation stage.
It is designed to overcome resistance to current checkpoint blockade therapies, potentially serving as a second-line treatment for patients who do not benefit from existing drugs.
The project is heavily research-driven, consisting of 6 partners across 4 countries (DE, NL, SE, UK). It is dominated by academic and research institutions (4 universities and 1 research organization), with a low industry ratio of 17% (1 company). This suggests the current focus is on fundamental protein engineering and biophysical validation rather than immediate commercial manufacturing.
Contact the Stichting Nederlandse Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Instituten in the Netherlands.
Contact us to explore licensing opportunities for the RIPR platform technology.
