先进生物技术

2022年9月15日

图像/ Elena Resko制造的细胞疗法是高度复杂的,往往取决于熟练手工劳动。以色列创业先进生物技术旨在利用自动化、光学传感和人工智能消除手动组件的过程。癌细胞CAR-T免疫疗法等疗法已证明巨大潜力的治疗形式的血液癌症。目前治疗涉及提取一个癌症病人的免疫T细胞,基因工程在实验室,并返回给病人杀死癌细胞。这些疗法的缺点之一就是越来越多的细胞制造设置是高度复杂的。这意味着治疗价格昂贵,而且很大程度上局限于最富有的国家。副总裁根据诺姆Bercovich以色列公司开发先进生物技术,CAR-T细胞疗法已经被大多数癌症患者无法得到的东西。“所有的公司制造这种疗法使用半自动化的解决方案,需要大量的人工输入的数量和专业知识,“Bercovich补充道。向细胞疗法带来更多的自动化生产过程中,先进生物科技成立于2016年,其首席执行官阿辖Karnieli bar - lev在以色列高科技园区。先进生物技术正在开发一个自动化的细胞培养设备由人工智能和光学传感器。 Content continues below Related Content Prior to founding Adva Biotechnology, Karnieli had served as vice president of technology and manufacturing at the cell therapy firm Pluristem Therapeutics, which is now known as Pluri. He also founded the CDMO Atvio Biotechnology, which was acquired by Orgenesis in 2018. Bercovich was a process engineering manager at Pluristem and had known Karnieli for almost 12 years before ADVA Biotechnology was founded. “We worked together and [Karnieli] left the place, called me and told me about his idea. And I said I’d join right away,” recalled Bercovich. In an online presentation , Adva’s founder and CEO Ohad Karnieli explained that current manufacturers are only able to measure a few parameters in cell cultures on a few occasions. “We don’t really know what’s happening inside the system or inside our cultures,” he stated. “We put the cells in the incubator and we have no idea what’s happening. We need much more in-process controls.” The equipment, named ADVA X³, uses sensors and artificial intelligence to handle the fine adjustments that are often required when growing cells, such as monitoring and tweaking levels of nutrients in the cell culture medium. It consists of a single-use kit that slots into an electronic system. According to Adva Biotechnology, the kit can culture from 10 million to 20 billion cells in the same chamber. In addition, the kit has the ability to grow CAR-T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, exosomes, viruses and more. Content continues below Related Content At present, ADVA X³ is available only to early adopters. After a patent dispute with the CDMO giant Lonza, Adva entered a licensing agreement with Lonza in May 2022 to enable the startup to launch its equipment in the U.S. The device will face its first field test manufacturing an advanced therapy for a clinical trial in 2023. “Once it’s tested in a clinical trial … that is when we can look at the device and say, ‘We made it. It’s the real thing,’” said Bercovich. Adva is part of a wave of startups geared towards bringing automation to the world of advanced therapy manufacturing, such as Ori Biotech and Cytera Cellworks . Bercovich said that Adva’s fast adoption of optical sensing technology is what helps the company stand out from the crowd. Automated cell therapy manufacturing technology such as the ADVA X³ could also enable the advent of decentralized manufacturing . In this scenario, for example, a CAR-T therapy could be produced at the hospital where a cancer patient is staying, rather than being shipped off to a large, expensive central location. “If I can take my manufacturing and bring it to the patient, a lot of the logistics and the huge footprint are basically eliminated,” stated Karnieli. “We need decentralized manufacturing with centralized control, meaning remote access, alerts and all these different automation properties.” Adva Biotechnology bankrolled its research with a crowdfunding campaign in 2020, and with a seed round in 2021. The company is now in the middle of raising another funding round. According to Bercovich, while a lot of attention has been paid to the business potential of automation in cell therapy manufacture, Adva’s also mindful that these advances can lead to more treatments that save lives. “Behind all this, it’s a potential cancer treatment,” said Bercovich. “This is something that we speak about every now and then to not forget.” Explore Related Topics: