Juno meets its Fate in enhanced T cell therapy deal
Fate Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:FATE) jumped $2.28 (46%) to $7.24 on Wednesday after partnering with oncology company Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:JUNO). Fate will screen its library of small molecules to seek modulators that can enhance the activity of Juno's chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor ( TCR) therapies.
Fate President and CEO Christian Weyer told BioCentury that the company is looking to improve the potency, persistence, proliferation and homing of Juno's T cell therapies. He said Fate's molecules work by up-regulating or down-regulating proteins on the surface of cells; he would not disclose which cell surface proteins the company intends to regulate, but said Fate previously demonstrated that one of its small molecules can dramatically up-regulate CXC chemokine receptor 4 ( CXCR4; NPY3R), a protein involved in cell homing, on hematopoietic stem cells. ...