SAN DIEGO, April 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FATE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders, today announced that it will host a Focus Session entitled “Off-the-Shelf Natural Killer Cell Cancer Immunotherapy” to kick-off the upcoming 2017 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) on Wednesday, June 14, 2017 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Focus Session will feature renowned guest speakers and provide an in-depth overview of the Company’s off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell product pipeline emerging from its industry-leading induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) platform. Fate Therapeutics and its collaborators are developing first-of-kind activated and tumor-targeted NK- and T-cell immunotherapies derived from master engineered pluripotent cell lines for the treatment of cancer. The Company has previously shown that its hnCD16-NK cell product candidate, derived from a master engineered pluripotent cell line expressing a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor, exhibits superior anti-tumor activity in preclinical studies compared to conventional NK cells sourced from peripheral blood and cord blood. In addition, the Company and its collaborators are assessing in preclinical studies the anti-tumor activity of several CAR-NK cells derived from master pluripotent cell lines engineered with novel chimeric antigen receptors (CARs).
Speakers scheduled to participate in the session include:
- Dan S. Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Division of Regenerative Medicine, Director of Cell Therapy, University of California, San Diego
- Karl-Johan Malmberg, M.D., Ph.D., Group Leader of Natural Killer Cell Biology and Cell Therapy, Department of Immunology, Oslo University Hospital
- Jeffrey S. Miller, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Deputy Director of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota
- Dan Shoemaker, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Fate Therapeutics, Inc.
- Bob Valamehr, Ph.D., Vice President, Cancer Immunotherapy, Fate Therapeutics, Inc.
The Focus Session will be available for review on the Company’s website at www.fatetherapeutics.com following the conclusion of the ISSCR Annual Meeting.
About Fate Therapeutics’ iPSC Platform
The Company’s proprietary iPSC platform enables genetic engineering and high-throughput single-cell isolation, selection, and characterization of human iPSCs and supports long-term maintenance of clonally-expanded human iPSCs as master pluripotent cell lines. Human iPSCs possess the unique dual properties of unlimited self-renewal and differentiation potential into all cell types of the body. Similar to master cell lines used for the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies, master pluripotent cell lines can serve as a renewable cell source for the consistent and repeated manufacture of homogeneous populations of cell products with the potential to treat many different diseases and many thousands of patients in an off-the-shelf manner. Fate Therapeutics’ iPSC platform is supported by an intellectual property portfolio of over 60 issued patents and 90 pending patent applications.
About Fate Therapeutics, Inc.
Fate Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders. The Company’s hematopoietic cell therapy pipeline is comprised of NK- and T-cell immuno-oncology programs, including off-the-shelf product candidates derived from engineered induced pluripotent cells, and immuno-regulatory programs, including product candidates to prevent life-threatening complications in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation and to promote immune tolerance in patients with autoimmune disease. Its adoptive cell therapy programs are based on the Company’s novel ex vivo cell programming approach, which it applies to modulate the therapeutic function and direct the fate of immune cells. Fate Therapeutics is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit www.fatetherapeutics.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the Company’s progress and plans related to its induced pluripotent stem cell platform and its development of off-the-shelf NK- and T-cell cancer immunotherapies derived from master pluripotent cell lines. These and any other forward-looking statements in this release are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk that results observed in prior studies, including preclinical studies of its product candidates, will not be observed in ongoing or future studies involving these product candidates, the risk that the Company may cease or delay preclinical or clinical development activities for any of its existing or future product candidates for a variety of reasons, the risk that any off-the-shelf NK cell product candidates developed by the Company may not be suitable for therapeutic applications, and the risk that product candidates developed by the Company may not provide the anticipated therapeutic benefits. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the risks and uncertainties detailed in the Company’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the Company’s most recently filed periodic report, and from time to time the Company’s other investor communications. Fate Therapeutics is providing the information in this release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.