10078115Pre-clinical development of a live biotherapeutic product engineered to remodel hyaluronic acid in solid tumours to enable checkpoint inhibitor efficacyClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKNeobe Therapeutics is an early-stage start up developing a synthetic biology platform to enable immunotherapy success in currently non responding cancer patients. Our platform is based on safe strains of tumour colonizing bacteria, which are engineered to be activated within solid tumours to release payloads which remove local barriers to immune infiltration. By increasing the number of immune cells that are able to penetrate solid tumours and reach cancer cells, Neobe's products can exponentially increase the number of patients that respond to existing immunotherapeutic approaches, without affecting healthy tissues. This project is specifically focused on the pre-clinical development of Neobe's lead product. While internal data includes product efficacy in _in vitro_ settings, this project will include efficacy studies in different _in vivo_ cancer models, demonstrating our product's potential to enable immunotherapy efficacy in two different indications that currently don't respond to these strategies. Additional features will be engineered to strengthen the safety profile of our product, which has been identified as an essential step towards further funding and the development of combination strategies with pharmaceutical partners. The main outcome of the project will be a strong efficacy, pharmacological and safety data package in multiple in vivo models, which will open the way for the clinical development of our product. Initial meetings with regulators with clarify the clinical development pipeline, opening the way to first in human clinical trials post project completion. It will also enable further investment into the company, fuelling its growth towards the development of additional stromal remodelling products targeting different disease indications. The project will be led and largely performed by Neobe's team, which is uniquely suited to guarantee its success due to its joint expertise in bacterial engineering, cancer biology and therapeutic commercialization. Its success will be an important stepping stone in the development of a first in class engineered therapeutic product for cancer patients. This could have significant impact in the lives of cancer patients, by expanding the tremendous therapeutic benefits of immunotherapies to non-responders. It will also contribute to the rise of the UK as a leader in the use of synthetic biology to generate safer and more effective therapeutic products.