Lipo-Immuno Tech, LLC, is a startup out of the Medical University of South Carolina, involving and immunologist and a phingolipid expert joining forces to develop a novel adoptive cell therapy technology for cancer. The firm has also executed an option agreement with the MUSC Foundation for Research Development for the rights to evaluate the technology further with an eye toward eventually licensing it for commercialization. Adoptive cell therapy can be understood as a form of immunotherapy in which the cancer patient's own T cells - immune cells that can kill cancer cells - are removed, expanded in the lab - after which, the expanded T cells are infused back into the patient. The concept of adoptive cell therapy is a rapidly growing field and judged an effective strategy for controlling tumor growth. However, its use present challenges - in addition to it being very costly. When T cells are isolated and expanded, they have to multiply many times - at which point they are susceptible to cell death. Additionally, the cells are susceptible to immunosuppression in the tumor micro-environment once they are transferred back into the patient. The Lipo-Immuno Tech focuses around addresing enhancement of the viability of expanded T cells and improving their functionality. The novelty of their approach addresses the role that lipids (or the molecules that make up cell membranes) play in suppressing the immune system - an important role, but one that is not well understood: lipids can prevent T cells and other immune cells from functioning properly. The Lipo-Immune Tedh approach therefore is better to understand and address these issues re, improving the immune response. Better to understand the role of lipids and the imunity role could improve anti-cancer immunotherapy as well as treatments for other diseases - providing opportunities to develop novel therapeutic agents and strategies to treat various diseases with unmet clinical needs, such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and infections. Th firm's principals are investigating the applicability of their new technology to different cancer types and already have promising data from preclinical studies in prostate cancer, melanoma and lung cancer but are expanding their efforts to other cancers as well.
