Using ORLA PDL-1 to save the world

In the last few decades, drugs, biologicals, and vaccines targeting certain attributes of the immune system, known as immunotherapeutics, have become available, and emerging clinical data suggest that cancer immunotherapy is likely to become a key part of the clinical management of cancer for years to come. Elimination of cancer by T-cells is only one step in the cancer immunity cycle. T-cell activation is controlled by both stimulatory and inhibitory checkpoints. Tumors use the expression of inhibitory ligands as a mechanism of suppressing cytotoxic T-cell response and inducing an immunosuppressive environment. Identification of specific cancer T-cell inhibitory signals, such as PD-L1, has prompted the development of a new class of cancer immunotherapy. Although immunotherapies represent a major step forward in cancer care, providing in some cases, unprecedented response rates, there are still major bottlenecks to be overcome in the manufacture of these new therapies. Orla Protein Technologies is an UK based biotechnology company that is attracting increasing market traction for its OrlaSURF platform in the biomanufacturing industry. This project will enable the company to utilize its proprietary platform to develop an innovative new range of engineered protein reagents to address key industry manufacturing needs.