Celdara Medical, LLC announced today that it has received a $3.2M SBIR Phase II award from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This award will support the preclinical and clinical development of Celdara Medical’s chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.
“Other CAR therapies are showing remarkable efficacy in human trials, and we are optimistic that our NKG2D-targeted CAR therapy will expand the applicability of CARs while reducing some of their current limitations. This award will enable us to complete our preclinical studies and determine the safety profile of NKG2D-targeted CARs in patients with advanced cancers. Our ultimate goal is to bring a transformative therapy to patients who currently have few other options,” said Jake Reder, Ph.D., cofounder and CEO of Celdara Medical.
Autologous CAR therapies use the patient’s own immune cells to not only target cancerous cells directly, but also to induce the rest of a patient’s immune system to engage in the fight against cancer, thereby combining the benefits of a tumor-targeted therapy and a immunomodulatory/checkpoint therapy. This strategy of combining direct targeting and immune modulation has shown outstanding results in preclinical studies and is now beginning to show equally encouraging results in early clinical trials. Celdara Medical’s lead CAR therapy uses NKG2D, an endogenous targeting molecule that is normally found on NK cells. Ligands to NKG2D are expressed on the surface of most cancer cells, as well as certain immunosuppressive cells that are important to the maintenance of the tumor microenvironment.
Research reported in this press release was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number R44HL099217- 03. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
About Celdara Medical, LLC
Celdara Medical was founded by Drs. Jake Reder and Michael Fanger in 2008, and is headquartered at the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center (DRTC) in Lebanon, NH. Celdara Medical builds academic and early-stage innovations into high-potential medical companies, identifying discoveries of exceptional value at the earliest stages and moving them toward the market. Celdara Medical partners with inventors and their institutions, providing the developmental, financial, and business acumen required to bridge discovery and profitability. With robust funding options, a diverse and high impact Programmatic pipeline, and partnerships with world-class academic institutions and industry leaders, Celdara Medical navigates all aspects of a complex industry, accelerating science to improve human health.