Immunotherapy is a powerful way to treat cancer, using immune cells modulated in a laboratory to boost patients’ immune systems and empower the body to find and destroy cancer cells. At Cyteph, our approach is novel - underpinned by world-class technology, with platform reach and potential.

CMV is a common virus that belongs to the herpesvirus family. It is estimated that up to 70% of adults have been infected with the virus, which can remain latent in the body for life. CMV is commonly found in many different types of tumours, including difficult-to-treat cancers like glioblastoma.

Cyteph leverages the power of CMV-specific T cells as the basis of its allogeneic cell therapies and CAR T platform. CMV-specific T cells have a natural ability to recognise and attack virus-infected cells, including cancer cells, making them an advantageous choice for immunotherapy. CMV-specific T cells are particularly effective at targeting and destroying cancer cells because they can specifically recognise viral antigens expressed by the cancer cells.

Cyteph’s approach is to use CMV-specific T cells derived from seropositive healthy donors. These T cells are manufactured using proprietary CMV peptide epitopes, leading to a highly specific and well-characterised drug product. The products can then be stored in a cell bank and provided to many patients as required. Cyteph’s proprietary HLA matching algorithm is specifically designed to identify the appropriate T cell products for patients.

Cyteph has an established manufacturing partnership for its T cell therapies with QGen Cell Therapeutics - a cell manufacturing facility operated by respected medical research institute and Cyteph’s foundational partner, QIMR Berghofer.

This is an important relationship to support essential manufacturing for Cyteph’s imminent clinical trial program.

The use of allogeneic cells as the basis for Cyteph’s therapies allows for the development of off-the-shelf therapies that can be manufactured on a large scale, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming T cell collection and engineering for each individual patient - as is the case for autologous therapies.

Additionally, the use of allogeneic T cells can provide greater consistency and quality control in the manufacturing process.