The partnership is intended to combine Prime Medicine’s Prime Editing platform with Cimeio Therapeutics’ Shielded Cell and Immunotherapy Pairs (SCIP) platform
Prime Medicine and Cimeio Therapeutics sign a research partnership. (Credit: National Cancer Institute on Unsplash)
Biotechnology company Prime Medicine has announced a research collaboration with Cimeio Therapeutics to develop prime edited shielded-cell & immunotherapy pairs for genetic diseases, acute myeloid leukaemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome.
The partnership is intended to combine Prime Medicine’s Prime Editing platform with Cimeio Therapeutics’ Shielded Cell and Immunotherapy Pairs (SCIP) platform.
The research aims to enhance the safety and effectiveness of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplants. It will also enable the in vivo selection of edited HSCs to potentially remove the need for transplantation entirely.
Cimeio’s SCIP platform when combined with the Prime Editing platform can significantly improve the accessibility, eligibility and outcomes for patients who potentially benefit from HSC transplants.
The combination can also allow the selection of in vivo edited HSCs, to treat genetic illnesses without a transplant.
Prime Medicine CEO Keith Gottesdiener said: “Through this partnership, we are gaining access to a promising platform technology, which, when combined with Prime Editing, may allow many more patients to benefit from the potentially curative power of HSC transplant and, for the first time, make feasible in vivo treatment of many genetic diseases.”
According to the terms of the agreement, the biotechnology company will develop a Prime Editor for Cimeio’s CD117 shielding variant that will then be assessed by both firms.
Both firms will give each other exclusive licence options for their technologies if the research partnership is a success.
Prime Medicine will get an exclusive option to license Cimeio’s cell shielding technology for CD117-shielded HSC transplant and in vivo editing of CD117-shielded HSCs for genetic diseases, excluding sickle cell disease.
Additionally, Cimeio will get an exclusive option to license Prime Medicine’s Prime Editing technology for its CD117-shielded allogeneic HSC product for use in AML and MDS, as well as, possibly, a second shielding protein for use in AML and MDS.
Cimeio Therapeutics CEO Thomas Fuchs said: “Our goal is to reinvent HSC transplant as a more effective and practical option for many more patients facing debilitating and fatal diseases.
“We look forward to partnering with the extremely talented team at Prime Medicine to advance our novel CD117 programme.”