The University of Alabama at Birmingham and two partner institutions this month received a European patent for their novel approach to fighting cancer, an approach that is led by the UAB spinoff biopharmaceutical company Incysus Ltd.

Incysus is focused on delivering innovative cellular therapy to treat solid tumor cancers. The European patent is owned by the academic collaborators of Incysus – UAB, Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – and it is licensed exclusively to Incysus for all therapeutic purposes. U.S. Patent applications are pending.

The novel cellular therapy is called drug–resistant immunotherapy, or DRI. It is in its preclinical phase, and Incysus is moving toward an investigational new drug application filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin tests of safety and efficacy in patients with the brain tumor glioblastoma.

DRI combines two ways to fight cancer – immunotherapy and chemotherapy. While chemotherapy can shrink tumors, immunotherapy uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancer, by stimulating the system or giving the patient additional immune system components. Unfortunately, chemotherapy often destroys the immune cells, and growing cancers can also block an immune response that otherwise would destroy the cancer. Tumors also create a tumor microenvironment around the tumor cells that acts as a defensive barrier.

William Ho, the president and CEO of Incysus, uses simple language to explain the problem solid tumors pose for immunotherapy after immune system cells are injected into the patient.

“The analogy I use is everybody is trying to create a strong army made up of Spartans, cells that can fight cancer cells hard,” Ho said. “But on their journey to the solid tumor, some get lost, some die, and when they get to the site, they find the tumor cells are sitting in a castle, protected by a moat.”

“By being able to combine chemotherapy and immunotherapy, we can use chemotherapy to ablate or modify the tumor microenvironment,” Ho said. “Chemo acts like a bomb. It flattens the castle walls.”

Incysus has supported the UAB laboratory of Lawrence Lamb, PhD, professor of medicine, senior scientist in UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and a scientific co–founder of Incysus, with significant funding as he completes the DRI preclinical phase.