NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Investigators from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in collaboration with Immunai have published results from a clinical study in which Immunai’s technology helped identify BTG1 as a novel molecular target that can be used to enhance the potency of natural killer T (NKT)- and T cell-based cancer immunotherapy. The study was published today in Nature Medicine.

As part of this collaboration, Immunai leveraged its advanced multi-omics platform to analyze clinical samples from an ongoing trial conducted at BCM. These studies led to the identification of BTG1 as a novel driver of NKT cell hyporesponsiveness that can be targeted to enhance CAR-NKT cell anti-tumor function. This discovery has the potential to improve the ability of NKT and T cell therapy products to target and eliminate malignant cells.

BCM conducted extensive in vitro and in vivo studies to validate the superior anti-tumor activity of CAR-NKT cells modified to target BTG1, demonstrating the potential of this approach for use as a cutting-edge therapy. Importantly, CAR-NKT cells genetically modified to target BTG1 were able to overcome exhaustion, a major obstacle for developing effective cell therapy products.