Gavin Macbeath, PhD, on Screening for Off-Target Effects

“Every TCR that we are thinking about introducing into clinical trials will go through SafetyScan, in which we screen it against every possible peptide in the entire human proteome. We comprehensively identify any off targets of the TCR. If a TCR has an off target that's expressed at high levels in a critical organ, we would not move that TCR forward into clinical development. It's a way to vet TCRs and make sure we don't have any off-target effects before we start clinical trials.”

TScan Therapeutics is developing safer T-cell receptor (TCR) therapies with the use of their SafetyScan technology that screens TCRs across all human peptides for a comprehensive view of the therapy’s effects. TScan’s 2 lead programs are targeting leukemia and solid tumor indications with TCR therapies. The leukemia program is heading to phase 1 trials in the coming months.

Gavin Macbeath, PhD, chief scientific officer, TScan Therapeutics, presented data on the company’s programs and the SafetyScan platform at the Onco Cell Therapy Summit (OCTS) USA 2022, held June 29-30 in Boston, Massachusetts.

CGTLive spoke to Macbeath to learn more about the SafetyScan technology and its advantages in reducing toxicities. He also discussed the advantages of TScan’s TCR therapies.

REFERENCE

Macbeath G. Enhanced TCR-T cell therapy for the treatment of hematologic and solid tumor malignancies. Presented at: OCTS USA 2022, June 29-30, Boston, MA.