Quell Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing engineered T regulatory (Treg) cell therapies, today announced that the company has entered into a collaborative research agreement with the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), an international centre of excellence within the University of Sheffield recognised for its ground-breaking work in the fight against neurodegenerative disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, Quell Therapeutics will collaborate in a joint research programme with SITraN to accelerate the validation of Quell’s engineered Treg cell therapy platform for use in the treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases.
Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Director of SITraN and the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre said: “We are very excited to partner with Quell Therapeutics to explore developing new approaches for addressing the inflammatory component of neurodegenerative disorders. There is increasing evidence of the role of neuroinflammation as a key driver in these diseases, as well as Tregs being a key mediator of immune homeostasis in the CNS tissue. Quell have assembled an impressive multi-disciplinary team with expertise from Treg biology through cell therapy development and manufacturing, and we look forward to working with them to translate their platform into therapies for neurodegenerative disorders.”
The research collaboration will enable Quell to access the disease expertise and translational capabilities of the SITraN team to validate multiple therapeutic candidates developed using Quell’s engineered Treg cell therapy platform, including accessing SITraN’s suite of in vitro and in vivo disease models. The collaboration will also pursue translational work to further understand the immunobiology of neurodegenerative diseases by profiling patient biosamples, collected by SITraN in collaboration with the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).
“We have made great progress at Quell over the past 18 months building out our engineered Treg cell therapy platform and progressing our lead asset QEL-001 for liver transplantation towards the clinic,” said Iain McGill, Chief Executive Officer of Quell Therapeutics. “Our partnership with Professor Dame Pamela Shaw and her team at SITraN will be key in accelerating our path to the clinic in the field of neuroinflammation, a new area of Quell’s pipeline. We are excited to progress this work with the goal of developing truly transformational engineered Treg cell therapies for patients living with devastating neurodegenerative disorders.”