NEW YORK– Turnstone Biologics Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of cancer immunotherapies, today announced that it has entered into a strategic multi-year research collaboration with Moffitt Cancer Center (“Moffitt”) for pre-clinical development of investigational tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (“TIL”) therapies. The partnership will focus on new clinical candidates utilizing Turnstone’s next-generation selected TIL approach in multiple solid tumor types, in addition to IND submission of Turnstone’s lead TIL program, TIDAL-01.
“Moffitt has established itself as a leader in the development of cutting-edge cell-based therapies,” said Sammy Farah, Ph.D., MBA, President and CEO, Turnstone Biologics. “With Moffitt’s world leading researchers and unique capabilities to support translational research, we believe this collaboration will be crucial in bringing our transformative TIL therapies to people with cancer. We look forward to working closely with the team at Moffitt as we advance our innovative strategy in this field.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Moffitt will collaborate on the development of Turnstone’s pipeline of selected TILs for the identification, enrichment and expansion of neoantigen reactive TILs in solid tumor indications, including melanoma, breast and colorectal cancers. Furthermore, Turnstone will transfer their proprietary TIL manufacturing process to Moffitt to produce cell products for upcoming clinical studies of Turnstone’s TIL product candidates. Turnstone will provide financial support for research and development at Moffitt over the multi-year collaboration.
“Turnstone’s strong commitment to support its novel TIL platform and pipeline aligns on Moffitt’s expertise and singular focus on developing truly life altering cancer treatments,” said Shari Pilon-Thomas, Ph.D., Associate Member of the Immunology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center. “We are excited to collaborate with Turnstone to help propel the development of TIDAL-01 as well as progress investigation of multiple next-generation TIL immunotherapies with the potential to improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients.”
Turnstone’s lead TIL therapy candidate, TIDAL-01, builds on the success of clinically validated treatment protocols while enriching for the most relevant T-cells for tumor eradication, preserving broad antigen diversity and minimizing time to treatment for patients, with the ultimate goal of extending the benefit of TIL therapy across a wider range of solid tumor types. Turnstone aims to drive clinical efficacy in harder to treat, lower mutational burden cancer indications with its TIL platform. The TIDAL-01 program is expected to enter the clinic in early 2022.
