先進生物技術

2022年9月15日

圖像/ Elena Resko製造的細胞療法是高度複雜的,往往取決於熟練手工勞動。以色列創業先進生物技術旨在利用自動化、光學傳感和人工智能消除手動組件的過程。癌細胞CAR-T免疫療法等療法已證明巨大潛力的治療形式的血液癌症。目前治療涉及提取一個癌症病人的免疫T細胞,基因工程在實驗室,並返回給病人殺死癌細胞。這些療法的缺點之一就是越來越多的細胞製造設置是高度複雜的。這意味著治療價格昂貴,而且很大程度上局限於最富有的國家。副總裁根據諾姆Bercovich以色列公司開發先進生物技術,CAR-T細胞療法已經被大多數癌症患者無法得到的東西。“所有的公司製造這種療法使用半自動化的解決方案,需要大量的人工輸入的數量和專業知識,“Bercovich補充道。向細胞療法帶來更多的自動化生產過程中,先進生物科技成立於2016年,其首席執行官阿轄Karnieli bar - lev在以色列高科技園區。先進生物技術正在開發一個自動化的細胞培養設備由人工智能和光學傳感器。 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: