SPONTANEOUSLY BIOTINYLATED LENTIVIRAL VECTORS FOR ENVELOPE INDEPENDENT TARGETING OF INFECTION
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Haematology
Abstract
As a result of a BBSRC funded project we have generated a new 293T based cell line specifically for the production of metabolically biotin labelled lentiviral vectors. These bio-lentiviral vectors have been demonstrated to efficiently complex with streptavidin paramagnetic particles. This combination has resulted in the most efficient purification and concentration method yet described for lentiviral vectors. We wish to use the platform of these new biotin-lentiviral packaging cells to exemplify their value to the gene therapy community. By virtue of their biotinylated surface these viruses can be attached to specific cell binding proteins so that they can be targeted to specific sites of disease. Their unique properties also allow us to increase our knowledge of the cell derived accessory proteins that are also resident on the lentiviral surface. Information on the influence of these proteins on the process of lentiviral infection can then be applied to more efficient targeting of gene therapy vectors to specific sites of infection.
Technical Summary
For lentiviral vectors we have succeeded in engineering an entirely new producer cell type in which the extracellular domain of LNGFR is fused to a biotin acceptor peptide (BAPref). Coordinate expression with the bacterial Bir A gene in human 293T cells results in metabolic biotinylation of a specific lysine residue in the BAP region. LNGFR-BAP-BIOTIN appears on the surface of lentiviral vector making them susceptible to Streptavidin capture. We now propose to use the platform bio-lentivector technology to increase the efficiency of targeting and to test the hypothesis that 'infection attenuated, and non-infectious lentiviral vectors can be manipulated to generate an exclusively ligand dependent, tissues specific infection of target cells'. To do this we will pursue two strategies: 1) Incorporation of cell/tissue specific ligands onto lentivirus particles, thus enabling them to regain infectivity only for the targeted cells. 2) Ligand dependent targeting of non-infectious vectors to specific cells, followed by a second stage targeting delivery of infection promoting factors, thus restricting infection to cells that have been successfully targeted by both components (the non-infectious virus, and the infection agent).
People |
ORCID iD |
| Farzin Farzaneh (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ana C P
(2020)
Efficient Ex Vivo Expansion of ?d T-Cells from AML Patients Requires Elimination of Circulating Leukemic Blasts
in Advances in Leukemia Research and Treatment
Sánchez-Fueyo A
(2020)
Applicability, safety, and biological activity of regulatory T cell therapy in liver transplantation.
in American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons
Kizilors A
(2017)
Retroviral insertional mutagenesis implicates E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF168 in the control of cell proliferation and survival.
in Bioscience reports
Shi Y
(2018)
IL-15/IL-15Ra/CD80-expressing AML cell vaccines eradicate minimal residual disease in leukemic mice.
in Blood advances
Polyzoidis S
(2015)
Active dendritic cell immunotherapy for glioblastoma: Current status and challenges.
in British journal of neurosurgery
Hardwick N
(2010)
Lytic activity against primary AML cells is stimulated in vitro by an autologous whole cell vaccine expressing IL-2 and CD80.
in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII
| Description | The main output of this project, in combination with BB/E005896/1 has been the development of novel procedures for biomarking of retrovirus and lentivirus based vectors. This technology, combined with the development of GMP facilities and development of GMP compliant procedures for the production of clinically suitable batches of these viral vectors have resulted in substantial further grant funding, two clinical trials for lentivirus based modification of autologous acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells to enable the expression of CD80 and IL-2, in order to generate an AML cell vaccine. These Phase-I clinical trials are currently in progress at King's College Hospital. In addition, the technologies developed and the facilities generated with the aid of these grants (BB/D014301/1 and BB/E005896/1) have enabled further collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry, including £2.4M worth projects with Roche Pharmaceuticals, £2.6M worth of contracts with Northwest Biotehrapeutics and £10.1M with Cellectis. The highly complementary projects funded by BBSRC have now culminated in further collaborations and income from the industry (Autolus, Orchard and Servier), over £3 million in 2018, plus a further milestone payment of £2M for non-exclusive licensing of IP to Cellectis. |
| Exploitation Route | The viral vector manufacturing technologies and GMP facilities that are developed with the aid of these BBSRC supported project grants, in conjunction with further support from NIHR and Experimental Cancer Medicine initiative are now providing the basis for further collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry. We are in active discussions with Autolus, Pfizer and MedImmune. Autolus has already contracted projects worth over £500,000 for 2016/2017). The above studies have now expanded to over £10 million of contracts with Cellectis, plus further contracts of over £3 million with Autolus and just under 1 million with Servier. |
| Sectors | Education,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Description | This project has culminated in the development of novel manufacturing procedures for the generation of lentivirus and retrovirus based vectors for clinical use. This IP, and facilities generated has resulted in substantial collaborations with the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Please see the Key Findings above for further details. The output from this project, as well as a subsequent project on viral vector development has culminated over the past year in over £3 million of contracts with the biotech and pharmaceutical industry (Autolus, Orchard and Servier), plus a further payment of £2M by Cellectis as milestones for the transfer of IP on a none-exclusive |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Education,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Description | An immunisation strategy to prevent hepatocellular carcinoma |
| Amount | $1,200,000 (SGD) |
| Organisation | National Medical Research Council NMRC |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Singapore |
| Start | 08/2012 |
| End | 07/2015 |
| Description | Core Suppport for GMP facility |
| Amount | £450,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
| Department | NIHR Biomedical Research Centre |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2012 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Core Suppport for GMP facility |
| Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre Network (ECMC) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2012 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Efficacy/safety of CD80-IL-2 vs novel CD80-IL-15-IL-15R? vector for leukemia vaccine |
| Amount | $275,000 (USD) |
| Funding ID | NIH R21: AI099829-01A1 |
| Organisation | National Institutes of Health (NIH) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 10/2013 |
| End | 09/2015 |
| Description | Next generation CAR19 studies - Collaboration with Martin Pule et al at UCL |
| Amount | £900,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | II-C3-0714-20005 |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
| Department | NIHR i4i Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2016 |
| End | 04/2019 |
| Description | Pre-emptive immune therapy to prevent relapse of myeloid malignancies |
| Amount | £1,093,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | LLR 13007 |
| Organisation | Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2013 |
| End | 02/2017 |
| Description | Translational Research Program: Activation of multiple adjuvant pathways to improve AML vaccine efficacy |
| Amount | $540,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 07/2013 |
| End | 06/2016 |
| Description | Autolus - Novel GMP Production of Retroviral Vectors |
| Organisation | Autolus Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Development of a novel procedure for the substantially faster GMP manufacture of retrovirus vectors, thus reducing the time from pre-clinical studies to the first-in-man clinical studies of gene therapy studies using retrovirus vectors. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Funding of the study and the contribution of expertise to the GMP manufacture of lentivirus vectors, including the placement of 3 Autolus members of staff for over a year at King's College London. |
| Impact | New GMP manufacture of retrovirus vectors Multiple clinical trials, the first of which is due to start within the next 3 months. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Cellectis: Production of viral vectors (primarily lentivirus), and gene modified cells, for clinical applications of cell and gene therapy |
| Organisation | Cellectis |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Development and production of multiple lentivirus and retrovirus vectors for a range of clinical studies in collaboration with both academic and industry partners, the largest of which is the collaboration with Cellectis culminating in over £1.6 million of funding todate, plus a new contract for £10.1 million over the next 3 years. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provision of funding and know-how in specific areas (e.g. site directed endonuclease mediated inhibition of endogenous T cell receptors, in order to allow the generation of allogeneic (off-the-shelf) Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells for the treatment of malignant disease. This project is directly supported by BB/N003853/1 and assisted by the outputs from our previous BBSRC grants: BB/E005896/1, BB/D014301/1 and BB/K013785/1. |
| Impact | The development of allogeneic CAR-T cells (referred to as UniCAR-T) for the treatment of malignant disease. There has also been substantial inward investment (over £11,000,000 between 2016 and 2019 from Cellectis alone) underpining further developments that we expect to culminate in substantially larger collaborations with other pharmaceuticaal companies (active discussions in progress with Cell Therapy Catapult, Pfizer and Servier). This collaboration has also resulted in a separate collaboration with a UK based start-up company - Autolus (reported as a separate collaboration). |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaboration with the University fo Lausanne for the development and production of lentivirus lectors |
| Organisation | University of Lausanne |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have set up a new collaboration with the University of Lausanne for the development of lentivirus vectors and their GMP manufacture over the next 3 years (2018 to 2020). University of Lausanne has provided a contract of £2.6M of which the first instalment of 20% has already been paid. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The development of vectors that they have produced for a number of gene therapy based clinical studies, and the use of the vectors made under GMP at King's College London, in these clinical trials. |
| Impact | Contracts of Collaboration Signed |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Several new collaborations with UK, US and European biotech/pharma the details of which I cannot provide identification due to NDA. Each of these initiatives has been directly facilitated by this BBSRC award (BB/N003853) |
| Organisation | Autolus Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | These Collaborations, constituting various projects on the development of viral vectors fro clinical trials have a total value of over £10 million for the period since 2015. These industrial collaboration on the development and GMP manufacture of viral vectors is in addition to collaborative research grants awarded by the Wellcome Trust. |
| Collaborator Contribution | By enlarge the collaborators have provided either the vector payload or the earlier generations of vectors to which we have added improvements by R&D activities and then incorporated new manufacturing strategies supported by our R&D activities by improving vector design, assessing the impact of the improvements and incorporating these improvements into the GMP manufacture of vectors that have then to first-0in-man clinical trials. |
| Impact | Awards by Industry: - Servier Pharmaceutical Group, France. Development and GMP manufacture of vectors for clinical trials in Universal CAR T cell therapies. 01/09/2017 to 31/12/2018. Value: >€871,051.14 - Orchard Therapeutics / University of Manchester. Clinical grade lentivirus vectors: PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2018. Value: £632,000. - Cellectis. Development of lentivirus vectors. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2016/21. Value: >£10,300,000. - Autolus Pharmaceuticals. GMP Manufacture of retroviral vectors by a novel procedure. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration 2018-2020. Value: £4,750,000 Awards by Research Councils/Governmental Agencies/Charities: - Cell Therapy Catapult. Development of viral vector industrialisation processes. PI: F Farzaneh Duration 2015/18. Value: £130,000. - NIHR Invention for Innovation Programme (i4i). Next generation CAR19 studies. Collaborative project with UCL, ICH and UCH. PIs Martine Pule, Karl Peggs, David Linch and Paul Smith (UCL), Waseem Qaseem and Adrian Thrasher (ICH), Farzin Farzaneh (KCL), Mike Watts (UCH). Duration 1/11/2015 to 30/04/2019. Value: 3,754,000 (£840,421 at KCL). Ref: II-C3-0714-20005 - Wellcome Trust. Next generation engineered T-cell therapy for brain lymphoma. PI: Martin Pule. Applicants: Karl Peggs, David Linch, Farzin Farzaneh, Mark Lythgoe, Mark Lowdell, Erik Arstad, Paul Smith, Irfan Kayani, Ashley Groves. Duration 2016/2021. Value: £2,733,673. - Wellcome Trust. Pre-clinical development of a stem cell based gene therapy protocol and clinical proof of principle for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. PI: G Cossu. Applicants: I Hughes, F Muntoni, F Farzaneh, G McCullagh, L Chan, S Kimber. Duration: 01/06/2016 to 31/05/2020. Value: £827,583 (Approx £250,000 at KCL). - Department of Health/CRUK (Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre). GMP Facility Core Funding - 50% Contribution to Quality Manager's salary. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2017/22. Value £150,000. - Cancer Research UK King's Health Partners Centre. PI: Parker, P., Ciccarelli, F., Dazzi, F., Farzaneh, F., Hayday, A., Maher, J., Ng, T., Papa, S., Purushotham, A., Sarker, D. & Spicer, J. Duration: 01/04/2017 to 30/09/2022. Value: £2,464,067 Includes: GMP Facility Core Funding - 50% Contribution to Quality Manager's salary. PI: Farzin Farzaneh. Duration: 2017/22. Value £150,000. - Greater London Authority (GLA). Adaptation of former HeLa based Cancer-Killing Assay of human leukocytes to be based on Pancreatic Cancer cells in order to increase the specificity of the assay in Pancreatic Cancer. PI: Farzaneh, F. Duration 01/04/2017 to 31/03/2019. Value: £100,000 - University of Lauzanne, Switzerland. Development of viral vector for clinical applications of gene therapy. PI: Faith Green & Farzin Farzaneh. 01/01/2018 to 31/12/2021. Value: £2,830,000. - MRC DPFS. Engineered Potassium Channel gene therapy for epilepsy. PI: Stephanie Schorge et al (at UCL), F Farzaneh at KCL. Duration; 01/03/2018 to 28/02/2021. Value: £1,945,483 (at KCL >£464,903). - JP Moulton Charitable Trust. AML-2: CD80/IL-2 immune gene therapy for poor prognosis Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Duration 2020-2022. Value: £595,000. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Several new collaborations with UK, US and European biotech/pharma the details of which I cannot provide identification due to NDA. Each of these initiatives has been directly facilitated by this BBSRC award (BB/N003853) |
| Organisation | Cellectis |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | These Collaborations, constituting various projects on the development of viral vectors fro clinical trials have a total value of over £10 million for the period since 2015. These industrial collaboration on the development and GMP manufacture of viral vectors is in addition to collaborative research grants awarded by the Wellcome Trust. |
| Collaborator Contribution | By enlarge the collaborators have provided either the vector payload or the earlier generations of vectors to which we have added improvements by R&D activities and then incorporated new manufacturing strategies supported by our R&D activities by improving vector design, assessing the impact of the improvements and incorporating these improvements into the GMP manufacture of vectors that have then to first-0in-man clinical trials. |
| Impact | Awards by Industry: - Servier Pharmaceutical Group, France. Development and GMP manufacture of vectors for clinical trials in Universal CAR T cell therapies. 01/09/2017 to 31/12/2018. Value: >€871,051.14 - Orchard Therapeutics / University of Manchester. Clinical grade lentivirus vectors: PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2018. Value: £632,000. - Cellectis. Development of lentivirus vectors. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2016/21. Value: >£10,300,000. - Autolus Pharmaceuticals. GMP Manufacture of retroviral vectors by a novel procedure. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration 2018-2020. Value: £4,750,000 Awards by Research Councils/Governmental Agencies/Charities: - Cell Therapy Catapult. Development of viral vector industrialisation processes. PI: F Farzaneh Duration 2015/18. Value: £130,000. - NIHR Invention for Innovation Programme (i4i). Next generation CAR19 studies. Collaborative project with UCL, ICH and UCH. PIs Martine Pule, Karl Peggs, David Linch and Paul Smith (UCL), Waseem Qaseem and Adrian Thrasher (ICH), Farzin Farzaneh (KCL), Mike Watts (UCH). Duration 1/11/2015 to 30/04/2019. Value: 3,754,000 (£840,421 at KCL). Ref: II-C3-0714-20005 - Wellcome Trust. Next generation engineered T-cell therapy for brain lymphoma. PI: Martin Pule. Applicants: Karl Peggs, David Linch, Farzin Farzaneh, Mark Lythgoe, Mark Lowdell, Erik Arstad, Paul Smith, Irfan Kayani, Ashley Groves. Duration 2016/2021. Value: £2,733,673. - Wellcome Trust. Pre-clinical development of a stem cell based gene therapy protocol and clinical proof of principle for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. PI: G Cossu. Applicants: I Hughes, F Muntoni, F Farzaneh, G McCullagh, L Chan, S Kimber. Duration: 01/06/2016 to 31/05/2020. Value: £827,583 (Approx £250,000 at KCL). - Department of Health/CRUK (Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre). GMP Facility Core Funding - 50% Contribution to Quality Manager's salary. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2017/22. Value £150,000. - Cancer Research UK King's Health Partners Centre. PI: Parker, P., Ciccarelli, F., Dazzi, F., Farzaneh, F., Hayday, A., Maher, J., Ng, T., Papa, S., Purushotham, A., Sarker, D. & Spicer, J. Duration: 01/04/2017 to 30/09/2022. Value: £2,464,067 Includes: GMP Facility Core Funding - 50% Contribution to Quality Manager's salary. PI: Farzin Farzaneh. Duration: 2017/22. Value £150,000. - Greater London Authority (GLA). Adaptation of former HeLa based Cancer-Killing Assay of human leukocytes to be based on Pancreatic Cancer cells in order to increase the specificity of the assay in Pancreatic Cancer. PI: Farzaneh, F. Duration 01/04/2017 to 31/03/2019. Value: £100,000 - University of Lauzanne, Switzerland. Development of viral vector for clinical applications of gene therapy. PI: Faith Green & Farzin Farzaneh. 01/01/2018 to 31/12/2021. Value: £2,830,000. - MRC DPFS. Engineered Potassium Channel gene therapy for epilepsy. PI: Stephanie Schorge et al (at UCL), F Farzaneh at KCL. Duration; 01/03/2018 to 28/02/2021. Value: £1,945,483 (at KCL >£464,903). - JP Moulton Charitable Trust. AML-2: CD80/IL-2 immune gene therapy for poor prognosis Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Duration 2020-2022. Value: £595,000. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Several new collaborations with UK, US and European biotech/pharma the details of which I cannot provide identification due to NDA. Each of these initiatives has been directly facilitated by this BBSRC award (BB/N003853) |
| Organisation | Servier Laboratories |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | These Collaborations, constituting various projects on the development of viral vectors fro clinical trials have a total value of over £10 million for the period since 2015. These industrial collaboration on the development and GMP manufacture of viral vectors is in addition to collaborative research grants awarded by the Wellcome Trust. |
| Collaborator Contribution | By enlarge the collaborators have provided either the vector payload or the earlier generations of vectors to which we have added improvements by R&D activities and then incorporated new manufacturing strategies supported by our R&D activities by improving vector design, assessing the impact of the improvements and incorporating these improvements into the GMP manufacture of vectors that have then to first-0in-man clinical trials. |
| Impact | Awards by Industry: - Servier Pharmaceutical Group, France. Development and GMP manufacture of vectors for clinical trials in Universal CAR T cell therapies. 01/09/2017 to 31/12/2018. Value: >€871,051.14 - Orchard Therapeutics / University of Manchester. Clinical grade lentivirus vectors: PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2018. Value: £632,000. - Cellectis. Development of lentivirus vectors. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2016/21. Value: >£10,300,000. - Autolus Pharmaceuticals. GMP Manufacture of retroviral vectors by a novel procedure. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration 2018-2020. Value: £4,750,000 Awards by Research Councils/Governmental Agencies/Charities: - Cell Therapy Catapult. Development of viral vector industrialisation processes. PI: F Farzaneh Duration 2015/18. Value: £130,000. - NIHR Invention for Innovation Programme (i4i). Next generation CAR19 studies. Collaborative project with UCL, ICH and UCH. PIs Martine Pule, Karl Peggs, David Linch and Paul Smith (UCL), Waseem Qaseem and Adrian Thrasher (ICH), Farzin Farzaneh (KCL), Mike Watts (UCH). Duration 1/11/2015 to 30/04/2019. Value: 3,754,000 (£840,421 at KCL). Ref: II-C3-0714-20005 - Wellcome Trust. Next generation engineered T-cell therapy for brain lymphoma. PI: Martin Pule. Applicants: Karl Peggs, David Linch, Farzin Farzaneh, Mark Lythgoe, Mark Lowdell, Erik Arstad, Paul Smith, Irfan Kayani, Ashley Groves. Duration 2016/2021. Value: £2,733,673. - Wellcome Trust. Pre-clinical development of a stem cell based gene therapy protocol and clinical proof of principle for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. PI: G Cossu. Applicants: I Hughes, F Muntoni, F Farzaneh, G McCullagh, L Chan, S Kimber. Duration: 01/06/2016 to 31/05/2020. Value: £827,583 (Approx £250,000 at KCL). - Department of Health/CRUK (Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre). GMP Facility Core Funding - 50% Contribution to Quality Manager's salary. PI: F Farzaneh. Duration: 2017/22. Value £150,000. - Cancer Research UK King's Health Partners Centre. PI: Parker, P., Ciccarelli, F., Dazzi, F., Farzaneh, F., Hayday, A., Maher, J., Ng, T., Papa, S., Purushotham, A., Sarker, D. & Spicer, J. Duration: 01/04/2017 to 30/09/2022. Value: £2,464,067 Includes: GMP Facility Core Funding - 50% Contribution to Quality Manager's salary. PI: Farzin Farzaneh. Duration: 2017/22. Value £150,000. - Greater London Authority (GLA). Adaptation of former HeLa based Cancer-Killing Assay of human leukocytes to be based on Pancreatic Cancer cells in order to increase the specificity of the assay in Pancreatic Cancer. PI: Farzaneh, F. Duration 01/04/2017 to 31/03/2019. Value: £100,000 - University of Lauzanne, Switzerland. Development of viral vector for clinical applications of gene therapy. PI: Faith Green & Farzin Farzaneh. 01/01/2018 to 31/12/2021. Value: £2,830,000. - MRC DPFS. Engineered Potassium Channel gene therapy for epilepsy. PI: Stephanie Schorge et al (at UCL), F Farzaneh at KCL. Duration; 01/03/2018 to 28/02/2021. Value: £1,945,483 (at KCL >£464,903). - JP Moulton Charitable Trust. AML-2: CD80/IL-2 immune gene therapy for poor prognosis Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Duration 2020-2022. Value: £595,000. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Vector Industrialisation Project |
| Organisation | Cell Therapy Catapult |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The aim of this recently initiated project is the development of GMP compatible procedures for the industrialisation of gene therapy products. The main focus of this specific project is the development of cell line/s with characteristics needed for large scale manufacture of a retrovirus vector encoding a specific T cell receptor (TCR). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Funding of the initial studies, providing the vector manufacturing cell line and expertise in project management, accurate calculation of costs of goods. Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult is also providing expertise in the development of strategies aimed at reducing the cost of goods, risk-reduction for manufacturing campaigns and strategies for efficient large scale manufacture of clinical grade vectors. This project is underpinned by two previous BBSRC grants and directly affected by our current BBSRC supported project. |
| Impact | This project is contributing to the development of new therapies and therapeutic strategies, particularly with respect of the industrial scale manufacture of cell and gene therapy vectors, thus contributing both to better health care and to creation of wealth, including inward investment from outside the UK. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Title | Development of GMP compliant manufacturing strategies for the production of clinical grade viral vectors |
| Description | The production of viral vectors, in particular lentivirus and gamma-retrovirus in sufficient quantities and able to meet the regulatory standards of quality is particularly challenging. Using the technologies that were developed as part of our BBSRC supported projects, we have established a range of manufacturing, purification and concentration strategies that have enabled us to manufacture the largest number (academia or industry) of retroviral and lentivirus vectors for regulatory approved clinical trials in Europe. This extensive research and development programme has now culminated in over £15 million pound of income (2012 to 2019) for King's College London from overseas based companies. |
| IP Reference | |
| Protection | Protection not required |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | The background manufacturing IP and know-how is licensed (non-exclusive) to Cellectis and to Cell Therapy Catapult. Discussions are in progress with other organisations in taking similar non-exclusive licenses. |
| Title | The processes developed in the course of this study have directly contributed to the success of subsequent contracts with the Industry, including Autolus and Cellectis (biotech and pharmaceutical companies. |
| Description | We have developed procedures for the fast manufacture of retrovirus and lentivirus vectors in compliance with the regulatory requirements for clinical use (GMP compliant procedures). These highly optimised procedures have enabled the production of high titre vectors (about 50,000 million infectious units of vector) from relatively small scale cultures (circa 10 litres), with greater than 50% recovery (frequently in excess of 70%) and minimal quantities of contaminating proteins and nucleic acids. This knowhow has recently been licensed on non-exclusive deals to the industry (Cellectis) in contracts producing in excess of £15 million pounds of income over the next 3 years. |
| IP Reference | |
| Protection | Protection not required |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | We have produced, for regulatory approved clinical trials, the largest number of lenti- and retroviral vectors in Europe. Each of the 4 BBSRC supported projects have contributed to this outcome. We are now extending this expertise with a view to similarly innovative manufacture of Adeno Associated Virus (AAV) manufacture for clinical use. |