TxCell Appoints Global Scientific Advisory Board

TxCell SA personalized cell immunotherapies using T regulatory (Treg) cells to treat severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announces today the appointment of its new Scientific Advisory Board (“SAB”) and its primary responsibilities.

The SAB will be chaired by Professor Zelig Eshhar, from the Weizmann Institute of science in Rehovot and from the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel. Professor Eshhar pioneered the CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) approach. His achievements have been recognized by several international awards, including the CAR Pioneering award by the ATTACK European Consortium, the Teva and Massry prizes and, most recently, the Israel Prize in life sciences. Professor Eshhar was the first scientist to demonstrate the therapeutic potential of Chimeric Antigen Receptor-engineered Regulatory T (CAR-Treg) cells in models of intestinal inflammation in mice. He is also the inventor of a patent application protecting the use of CAR-Treg cells for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. The patent application is under exclusive licensing option to TxCell.

The first two other members of the SAB will be Professor Chiara Bonini from the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy, and Doctor Bernard Malissen from Marseille-Luminy Immunology Center (CIML) in Marseille, France. Both Prof. Bonini and Dr. Malissen are European leaders in the field of T cell immunology. Last month, Professor Chiara Bonini reported at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS 2016) T-cell immunotherapy clinical results that created global headlines. Doctor Malissen is one of the pioneers in the field of molecular immunology in Europe and has received numerous international distinctions. He will notably bring to TxCell’s SAB his expertise in the receptor for the T lymphocyte antigen (TCR), and in antigen recognition and activation of T cells.

The fundamental purpose of the SAB will be to monitor the research and development of TxCell’s ASTrIA and ENTrIA platforms and to provide guidance where necessary. TxCell will also lever the extensive combined expertise of the SAB to further improve its knowledge of Treg cell biology and to further accelerate the development of TxCell’s existing and future drug-candidates.

“TxCell has managed to build an SAB that is unparalleled in the cell immunotherapy sector, and this matches and adds to its global leadership in the promising field of Treg cells,” said Arnaud Foussat, CSO of TxCell. “The fields of immunology, T-cell biology and chimeric antigen receptors are still emerging and developing. TxCell now has access to a knowledge and experience resource that will provide guidance to the development of our existing product pipeline. The SAB will also play a key role in helping TxCell to create novel and innovative cellular immunotherapy products to treat patients with severe auto-immune and inflammatory diseases refractory to available treatments.”