Expression Therapeutics Inc, a clinical-stage gene and cell therapy company, announced on Thursday that it has been awarded a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant of USD2,058,885 to advance ET501, its investigational PTK7-targeted gamma delta T-cell therapy, for children with high-risk neuroblastoma.

This award funds activities intended to support an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

ET501 applies the company's ADEPT-STAR platform, which uses its LENTeT lentiviral delivery system to engineer gamma delta T cells that secrete a T-cell engager at the tumour site. Gamma delta T cells recognise stressed and cancerous cells without requiring a tissue-type (HLA) match. ET501 is designed to secrete a PTK7×CD3 engager that binds PTK7 (protein tyrosine kinase 7), a protein on the surface of neuroblastoma cells, and CD3 on T cells, directing both the infused gamma delta T cells and T cells already in the tumour against cancer cells.