Submitted by L. Millard on Tue, 26/10/2021 - 12:40
IRC member, immunologist Dr Su Metcalfe, has been shortlisted to receive a coveted OBN Award that celebrates the UK Life Sciences industry, including individuals and companies that have made an outstanding impact in their field.
Dr Metcalfe is a Senior Research Associate in the Clinical School at the University of Cambridge and is EPSRC IRC co-Principle Investigator in addition to having founded two Cambridge-based biotechnology companies involving targeted nanotherapeutics. Her spin-out company, SWITCH-RX, was founded in 2020, following her discovery of how to switch tumour-specific quiescent immune cells into cancer-killing cells.
In solid cancers, the patient's immune cells often ‘see’ the tumour as self, actively promoting survival of the tumour cells. There is a critical need to break this tumour-specific self-tolerance. With SIX-IO we can. Dr Su Metcalfe
She had gone on to invent SIX-IO, tiny nanoparticles engineered to bind to these immune cells and ‘switch-the-switch’ into the killing mode whilst also acquiring memory to attack any newly arising metastases. Dr Metcalfe's line of sight to the clinic is to treat pleural mesothelioma initially, working together with the IRC's Professor Stefan Marciniak and Dr Robert Rintoul.
By using FDA-approved gels to engineer the highly potent synthetic biomimetic particles, SIX-IO will be manufactured in bulk as an off-the-shelf universal therapy – extending the power of synthetic biomimetics to treat disease on a global scale at a low cost. Crucially, by acting directly on the patient's tumour-dwelling immune cells, SIX-IO bypasses cell-based immune-oncology that requires genetic manipulation and clonal expansion of immune cells in the laboratory, then injecting them back into the patient, incurring costs of up to £1 million per treatment.
Dr Metcalfe said: “In solid cancers, the patient's immune cells often ‘see’ the tumour as self, actively promoting survival of the tumour cells. There is a critical need to break this tumour-specific self-tolerance. With SIX-IO we can."
SWITCH RX's revolutionary approach to treat solid cancers is a potential game-changer – recognised by the Oxford Biotechnology Network (OBN) for its Best Start-Up Biotechnology Company 2021 award. The OBN is a membership organisation that supports the life sciences industry and the prestigious OBN Awards, now in its 13th year, shines a light on companies at all stages of development, recognising leadership, innovation, novel approaches to unmet clinical need, outstanding company progression and the delivery of real-life tangible results. The winner of the 2021 OBE Awards will be announced on 25 November at a gala dinner held at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum.
