NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[biosectinvestor]

This Bioreactor for Autologous T-Cell Stimulation (BATON) system is quite exciting. If people recall, at one point I mentioned that NWBO would be in a position to collect a huge library of actual tumors from actual patients and develop a powerful library of tumor-specific antigens or neoantigens that they could target and then develop even more sophisticated treatments or turn the information into a revenue source as well, and the opportunities would also be incredibly rich. This section from the article you linked to Evaluate, was particularly interesting to me in that context.

Co-culturing different cell types

In the next generation of T-cell cancer therapies, the T cells will have a library of molecules on their surfaces, and these molecules will recognize and target tumor-specific neoantigens. Bespoke T-cell therapies will be generated by selecting the patient’s own T cells against libraries of neoantigens. After the neoantigens are acquired by sequencing the tumor, they will be presented by the patient’s own dendritic cells (DCs). Because DCs are not abundant in circulating blood, they are typically prepared by first differentiating them from monocytes.

Bioreactor for Autologous T-Cell Stimulation (BATON)
At Northeastern University, Shashi Murthy, PhD, and colleagues have developed the Bioreactor for Autologous T-Cell Stimulation (BATON) system. Featuring a highly modular design and incorporating fully disposable components (including disposable pumps and on-board reagent storage), BATON is designed to reduce manual operations in the co-culture of dendritic cells and T cells for neoantigen-based therapies. The system is being commercialized by a spinout called Flaskworks.

DCs and T cells may be co-cultured, but suitable instrumentation is required, says Shashi Murthy, PhD, professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University. At the time this article was written he was scheduled to describe the design of such instrumentation at the Cell and Gene Therapy Bioprocessing and Commercialization conference.

https://www.genengnews.com/insights/knocking-the-rough-edges-off-t-cell-therapy-manufacturing/

The new patent for the BATON system, which was filed in October 2020 for Flaskworks would of course come with the acquisition to NWBO I would expect, particularly given the timing.

https://uspto.report/patent/grant/11,268,058

Inventors: Murthy; Shashi K. (Newton, MA), Kozbial; Andrew (East Boston, MA)
Applicant:
Name City State Country Type

FLASKWORKS, LLC
Newton
MA
US
Assignee: FLASKWORKS, LLC (Boston, MA)
Family ID: 1000006160647
Appl. No.: 17/074,893
Filed: October 20, 2020

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/northwest-biotherapeutics-acquires-flaskworks-301122058.html

The acquisition includes both intellectual property owned by Flaskworks and a license of additional intellectual property from Northeastern University.