Singapore-based biotech startup ImmunoScape has announced a partnership with the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), Singapore's national platform for drug discovery and development hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

ImmunoScape’s core antigen-specific T cell immune profiling technology was developed at A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network and is exclusively licensed from A*STAR. Since its spinout from A*STAR in 2016, ImmunoScape has developed a cutting-edge, high-throughput, T cell receptors (TCR) discovery platform that produces a broad and emerging portfolio of novel, safe, and efficacious TCRs against solid tumours.

In this new partnership, ImmunoScape will leverage its catalog of highly potent tumour-specific TCR candidates for the joint development of innovative off-the-shelf TCR-based bispecific molecules with EDDC. These molecules contain two distinct binding sites and are engineered to bind and activate T cells, redirecting them towards tumor sites for interaction with cells expressing the unique tumor-specific antigen through the TCR.

This approach enables the patient's own T cell repertoire to selectively eliminate cancer cells. EDDC will apply its expertise in therapeutic protein design and antibody engineering to develop these novel TCR-based bispecific molecules.