We've built novel technologies, powerful analytical platforms and an integrated software ecosystem to systematically decode T-cell biology
T-cells protect us from cancer and infection, using our unique approach Anocca harnesses this exceptionally complex and potent part of our immune system to create innovative treatments
Our primary focus is to develop so called TCR-T cell therapies, engineering natural immunity to eliminate cancer by programming T-cells to recognise cancer targets
Anocca’s approach to precision T-cell Immunotherapies
Transformative Cellular Immunotherapies
T-cell based cellular immunotherapies are transforming cancer treatments by engineering T-cells and aiming their potent cancer killing activity at specific cancer targets.
CAR-T
First-generation CAR-T cell therapies harness the cancer killing activity of T-cells using synthetic receptor proteins to aim the T-cells to the cancer target, which limits the number of cancers that can be treated by these cell therapies.
TCR-T
Anocca is focused on a next generation of targeted T-cell therapies, using naturally occurring T-cell Receptors (TCRs) to aim potent T-cell tumour-killing activity at a vast and largely unexplored cancer target space for new precision cell therapies.
Understanding TCR‑T
To realise the full potential of TCR-T cell therapies, we must understand the complexity that underpins TCR and HLA-peptide interactions.
What is a T-cell receptor?
Each new T-cell produced in the body is naturally equipped with a TCR, a detector that enables T-cells to discriminate healthy from diseased cells. In humans, each T-cell generates a random TCR from an immense range of options - roughly the same number as grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches. This random selection of TCRs from a massively diverse pool, allows the billions of T-cells circulating through the body to encounter and recognise new disease targets that the body has never seen before - such as those in cancerous cells.
HLA-Peptide Targets
All cells in the body process their constituent proteins into small fragments called peptides in an intricate molecular recycling process. Small pieces of these peptides are loaded into proteins called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) and carried to the cell surface as HLA-peptide complexes for T-cells to inspect with their TCR. Cancer cells have numerous mutated and incorrectly expressed proteins that are processed into peptides and presented at the cell surface. Some of these cancer-selective peptides can be detected by T-cells via their TCR, which forms the basis of T-cell immunity against cancer.
TCR-T Promise
TCR-T Promise
TCR-T cell therapies harness the potent cancer killing activity of T-cells by engineering T-cells with TCR specific for cancer-selective HLA-peptide targets. By recreating the natural way in which T-cells detect the mutated and dysfunctional proteins present inside cancer cells, TCR-T unlocks a vast cancer-selective target space in most forms of cancer.
TCR-T Challenge
The massive diversity of mutated and incorrectly expressed proteins in cancer presents one of the key challenges when developing TCR-T therapeutics. Even if the patients share the same cancer-selective genes, the proteins that make up their HLA-peptide targets may differ, meaning that different patients with the same cancer can present a fundamentally different target for a T-cell therapy. Matching an optimal TCR with a particular cancer-selective HLA-peptide target involves the generation and characterisation of TCR genes that encode the detectors capable of potently and stringently recognising the cancer target – whilst disregarding the millions of HLA-peptides that normally presented by healthy cells of the body.