12 August 2019 - - An article published in the scientific journal Cell describes the invention of a breakthrough technology that enables the rapid and unbiased discovery of the physiologic targets of any T cell, US-based TScan Therapeutics said.

This work is the foundation for development efforts at TScan Therapeutics to discover new TCR immunotherapies for cancer and infectious disease.

The work described in the Cell article is based on research and discoveries by scientific founders of TScan, Stephen Elledge, PhD of Harvard Medical School and Tomasz Kula, PhD. TScan Therapeutics has an exclusive world-wide license to use the technology to discover and develop novel therapies based on T cell receptors.

Dr. Tomasz Kula, a recent graduate from the Elledge Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, worked with Dr. Elledge and his team to develop the TScan technology. In the Cell paper, researchers from the Elledge Laboratory describe how the technology can be used in the areas of cancer and infectious disease to discover new targets for TCR therapy.

The authors also demonstrate how tumor-derived TCRs can be fully characterized to reveal both their primary targets and any potential off-targets that may affect their safety profile as therapeutics.

The paper, T-Scan: A Genome-wide Method for the Systematic Discovery of T Cell Epitopes, was published online in the Journal Cell by Tomasz Kula, Mohammad H. Dezfulian, Charlotte I. Wang, Kai W. Wucherpfennig, Herbert Kim Lyerly, Stephen J. Elledge.

Having recently graduated from the Elledge lab, Dr. Kula has joined TScan Therapeutics.

Both Stephen Elledge, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Kai Wucherpfennig, Professor of Cancer Immunology and Virology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-author on the Cell paper, are actively engaged with TScan Therapeutics as members of the Scientific advisory board.

TScan designs therapies that reprogram a patient's own T cells to recognize and fight their cancer using naturally occurring TCRs that recognize shared cancer targets.

The TScan discovery process relies on the genome-wide, high-throughput target identification screen described in this Cell paper, designed to rapidly identify the natural targets of TCRs.

TScan is developing a portfolio of TCR therapies for patients suffering from both liquid and solid tumors. TScan is funded by a group of leading life science investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Google Ventures, founding investor Longwood Fund, Novartis Venture Fund, and Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research.