University of British Columbia Research Team Develops Accelerated Process for Producing T Cells from Human Stem Cells for Manufacturing Cell Therapies; Advancement Enhances Notch Technology Platform

— Results published in Science Advances —

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, September 14, 2022— Notch Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing renewable, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell therapies for cancer, announced today a peer-reviewed publication describing methods for vastly accelerating production of T cells from human stem cells in the lab. The novel method builds on a large body of previous research to develop an efficient serum- and feeder-free system for differentiating human iPSCs into hematopoietic progenitors and T cells that provides the basis for Notch’s technology platform.

The paper, entitled “DLL4 and VCAM1 Enhance the Emergence of T Cell–Competent Hematopoietic Progenitors from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells,” was published in the August 24, 2022 issue of Science Advances by Dr. Yale Michaels, PhD and John Edgar from the University of British Columbia (UBC) working with Notch Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder Peter Zandstra, PhD FRSC, FCAHS, PEng and his team at UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories and School of Biomedical Engineering.

In this latest advancement, the research team discovered that introducing the proteins DLL4 and VCAM1 to stem cells at a key point in the process resulted in an 80-fold efficiency improvement in T cell production. Feeder-free presentation of DLL4 and VCAM1 enables a carefully controlled, well-regulated production system free of animal products and ancillary cell types, thereby simplifying GMP conversion of established research methods.

Notch’s proprietary Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) technology is a robust and scalable platform for developing consistent and customizable off-the-shelf T cell therapies from renewable pluripotent stem cell sources. The platform offers the potential to make cell therapy mainstream by creating unlimited supplies of therapeutic cells from a single pluripotent cell that are readily available for delivery to the bedsides of thousands of patients.

“We are pleased with the results of this research in the Zandstra Lab funded by Notch and other partners that will substantially improve the production efficiency of Notch’s platform technology, bringing a renewable and more affordable source of T cells for therapy one step closer to patients,” said Chris Bond, PhD, Senior Vice President of Research & Early Development at Notch. “We look forward to scaling up this process improvement to enable rapid automated production of commercial-level quantities of T cells for treating large numbers of patients.”

Funding for this work was provided by Michael Smith Health Research BC, the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), Notch Therapeutics, the Stem Cell Network, and the Wellcome Leap Human Organs, Physiology, and Engineering (HOPE) program.

About Notch Therapeutics
Notch is an early-stage biotech company working to maximize the benefit of cell therapies through a proprietary T cell-production platform that combines sophisticated product design with commercial-compatible processes to enhance patient outcomes. Notch’s iPSC-based technology platform allows for precision control of notch signaling, which removes several critical limiting factors in the development of cell therapies, delivering the ability to design and manufacture a uniform and unlimited supply of therapeutic T cells. www.notchtx.com.

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