Create Medicines Inc. has received Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval in Australia to initiate a first-in-human study of CRT-402, the company’s lead in vivo CAR T candidate for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

CAR T-cell therapy has been highly effective in hematologic cancers but faces challenges in solid tumors due to the lack of safe, uniformly expressed surface antigens. A recent study found that the MiT/TFE-family fusion-driven glycoprotein NMB (GPNMB) is highly, homogeneously and stably expressed in primary and relapsed alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS) and translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC).

Sail Biomedicines Inc. has established a strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to advance innovative in vivo CAR T therapies for immune-mediated diseases.

Tikva Allocell Pte. Ltd. has closed an $8 million series A financing to support its development of engineered, allogeneic cell therapies for adult and pediatric patients with solid tumors.

Verismo Therapeutics Inc. has reported a new preclinical KIR-CAR program targeting the Claudin 6 (CLDN6) antigen to treat CLDN6-expressing solid tumors. The program is built around a CLDN6-directed binder discovered at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine through a Verismo-sponsored research agreement.

Valerio Therapeutics SA has entered into a binding term-sheet with Abivax SA setting out the principal terms of an exclusive worldwide research and development collaboration to identify, design and evaluate next-generation therapeutic candidates for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

Tempest Therapeutics Inc. has announced details of its pipeline of in vivo CAR T product candidates differentiated by a CD7-targeted mRNA/LNP delivery approach, with application in the fields of oncology and immunology. Tempest’s in vivo CAR T platform, CD7-targeted mRNA lipid nanoparticle (CD7-tLNP), offers broader T-cell reach, enhanced delivery efficiency and scalable in vivo CAR T.

A new strategy based on regulatory T cells (Tregs) engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) has shown that cell therapies can be directed against soluble allergens to control inflammation. The findings open a potential path toward the development of antigen-specific cell therapies for allergies caused by pollen, food allergens or dust mites.

Fate Therapeutics Inc. has obtained IND clearance from the FDA for FT-839, the company’s next-generation, off-the-shelf CAR T-cell product candidate targeting CD19 and CD38 for autoimmune diseases.

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a rare but aggressive pediatric cancer, the third most-common in children and the most frequent in babies. Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and collaborators have reported findings from their study investigating the use of [67Cu]Cu-LLP2A as radiopharmaceutical therapy before CAR T-cell treatment in preclinical models of NB.