Cell therapy weekly: Elderly muscle stem cells rejuvenated by nightly exercise
Also this week: Achilles Therapeutics (Stevenage, UK) to utilize novel manufacturing platform and a new allogeneic cell therapy surveillance solution launched.
The news highlights:
Elderly muscle stem cells rejuvenated by nightly exercise
Achilles Therapeutics to utilize novel manufacturing platform
Allogeneic cell therapy surveillance solution launched
Elderly muscle stem cells rejuvenated by nightly exercise
Researchers from Stanford School of Medicine (CA, USA) have demonstrated that small amounts of nightly exercise can rejuvenate muscle stem cells in elderly mice. The effect was observed in aged mice, which are equivalent to 60—70-year-old humans, after 3 weeks of nightly running. It is hoped the result could offer a route to maintaining activity and health in aging populations.
“The animals were exercising at the intensity levels at which they were comfortable, much like what people do for their own health,” explained Thomas Rando, senior author and Director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Stanford School of Medicine. “This is a less stressful situation than resistance training or intense endurance exercise, which may themselves affect muscle stem cell function.”
Achilles Therapeutics to utilize novel manufacturing platform
Ori Biotech (London, UK) has announced a partnership with cell therapy developers Achilles Therapeutics (Stevenage, UK). Achilles Therapeutics will utilize Ori Biotech’s novel manufacturing platform in the production of the neoantigen T-cell therapy (cNeT), in the hopes of securing their ability to effectively scale up the cell product at a later stage.
“The team at Ori are excited to partner with innovative companies like Achilles who want to address manufacturing early in their lifecycle so that they can quickly bring their products to patients at scale,” commented Jason Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech. “We believe that collaborating with therapy developers early is key to maximizing the scalability and repeatability of these often-complicated manufacturing processes.”
Allogeneic cell therapy surveillance solution launched
A leading precision medicine company, CareDX (CA, USA), has announced the launch of AlloCell, a cell therapy surveillance platform. As part of CareDX’s plan to ensure high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients, AlloCell will track and monitor patients who have received allogeneic engineered-cell transplants.
“Allogeneic CAR-T is the next stage of immuno-oncology therapy and we expect it to have a transformative impact on our patients with an increasing range of indications,” stated Stefan Ciurea, Associate Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (TX, USA). “However, with many different cell therapy constructs expected and variability in patients’ responses to therapy, there is a significant need for a standardized diagnostic measurement of cellular kinetics and persistence to help personalize treatment. AlloCell has the potential to have significant clinical utility to help manage these allogeneic cell therapy patients.”
For more weekly cell therapy news, read previous editions of the cell therapy weekly.
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