Founding Science

MatchBio is based on groundbreaking research into the dynamics of T cell signaling and antigen recognition

Sensitivity describes the threshold of activation (minimum amount of antigen) required for an immune cell to respond to their target. In the field of cell therapy, it has been well documented that the artificial nature of chimeric antigen receptors drastically impairs their sensitivity.

Low sensitivity has big implications. Fixing the sensitivity DEFECT in CAR-T cells can:

:

  • Increase efficacy

  • Reduce relapse

  • Reduce exhaustion

  • Expand the target landscape

  • Enable technologies that are impacted by sensitivity
    (e.g. Logic Gates)

a CAR requires far more antigen than a TCR for activation

MatchBio has generated a range of synthetic technologies to drastically improve the function of CAR-T cell therapy and further expand the utility of TCR-T based therapeutics.

See some of our recent papers.

For a more detailed description of the Foundational science that MatchBio has built upon or contact MatchBio for more details

Using CombiCells, a platform enabling titration and combinatorial display of cell surface ligands, to study T cell antigen sensitivity by TCRs, CARs, and BiTEs

  • Genetic methods for creating ‘low antigen’ environments are laborious and imprecise, and cannot generate ultra-low antigen densities. This has limited the ability to quantify and assess CAR-T cell antigen sensitivity.

  • Our CombiCell platform allows for titrate titration of antigen on the cell surface enabling the rapid generation of cells with any antigen density into the ultra-low density regime.

  • The CombiCell platform is highly versatile enabling any combination and concentration of molecules to be displayed on the cell surface making it indispensable for evaluation of multiple immunotherapies, including various cell and antibody-based approaches

Inefficient exploitation of accessory receptors reduces the sensitivity of chimeric antigen receptors

  • Whilst it has been widely reported that CARs have a major defect in antigen sensitivity (100-fold lower than the TCR), the precise cause remained unclear.

  • In this landmark paper, the MatchBio Founders show that the profound defect in antigen sensitivity of CARs is a result of their inability to fully exploit adhesion receptors.

  • At MatchBio, we have built on these game-changing findings to develop a range of synthetic technologies which solve the sensitivity problem for CAR-T therapies

We have made a range of synthetic receptors to dramatically enhance the performance of CAR-T based therapeutics. Come back soon to discover our full pipeline or reach out for more details.