Sutro Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing a new generation of protein therapeutics, including next-generation antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre to use Sutro’s proprietary cell-free protein synthesis technology to produce bispecific antibodies that were discovered by Memorial Sloan-Kettering for the treatment of neuroblastoma in children.

"Neuroblastoma is the most common extra-cranial solid tumour in children, and long-term survival for children with advanced disease diagnosed after 18 months of age is unsatisfactory despite aggressive chemotherapy," said Trevor Hallam, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Sutro. "Sutro’s technology allows the generation, and importantly, the rapid screening of a large number of variations of bispecific antibodies. This will enable us to take bispecific antibodies with the desired characteristics faster into the clinic and potentially provide paediatric neuroblastoma patients with a much needed effective treatment option to combat this disease."

Under the collaborative agreement Sutro will use its cell free protein synthesis technology to produce four different bispecific antibodies discovered by Memorial Sloan-Kettering. These antibodies will be directed against CD3 on T-cells and, as the second target, against the ganglioside GD2, which is expressed on the surface of human neuroblastoma cells, as well as in melanoma and osteosarcoma. Nai-Kong V. Cheung, M.D., Ph.D., head of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Neuroblastoma program, will use preclinical models to test the bispecific antibodies manufactured by Sutro.

Dr. Cheung added, "We and others have previously shown that the use of an anti-CD3 and anti-GD2 bispecific antibody has a strong scientific rationale, and anti-GD2 monoclonal antibodies targeting the ganglioside GD2 have demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials in paediatric neuroblastoma. We hope that the use of Sutro’s technology will facilitate a more rapid, high-throughput optimization of these bispecific antibodies in the future, and allow us to investigate novel variants of these molecules quickly before bringing the winner to the clinic."