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INNOVATION
Metabolism-regulated iPS differentiation and NK activation technology
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Market Maturity: Business Ready
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Market Creation Potential
This innovation was assessed by the JRC’s Market Creation Potential indicator framework as having a High” level of Market Creation Potential. Only innovations that are showing multiple signals of market creation potential are assigned a value under this indicator system. Learn more
Women-led innovation
A woman had a leadership role in developing this innovation in at least one of the Key Innovator organisations listed below.
Go to Market needs
Needs that, if addressed, can increase the chances this innovation gets to (or closer to) the market incude:
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Location of Key Innovators developing this innovation
Key Innovators
UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDG)
This innovation contributes to the following SDG(s)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

The UN explains: "Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. It has long been recognized that growth in productivity and incomes, and improvements in health and education outcomes require investment in infrastructure."

The EU-funded Research Project
This innovation was developed under the Horizon Europe project HyperTargIPS-NK with an end date of 31/03/2026
  • Read more about this project on CORDIS
Description of Project HyperTargIPS-NK
The HyperTargIPS-NK project aims to combine novel technologies from three research laboratories and a stem cell company to develop a revolutionary therapeutic modality for patients with devastating refractory malignancies. The treatment we propose is based on allogenic transplantation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived natural killer (NK) cells, genetically modified to a hyperactive state to ensure high potency NK cell targeting and destruction of tumor cells. CAR NK-based cancer treatment is an extremely promising new therapeutic avenue. However, the full potential of CAR NK therapies will only be achieved when an off-the-shelf product is rapidly accessible to patients in need. IPS with its unlimited expansion potential is the ideal cell source for NK-based products, however, improved efficiencies of NK cell production, suitably activated status, and resistance to immune suppression would need to be achieved. We have several breakthrough technologies to address these issues with 1) a novel iPS cell differentiation system based on our newly identified metabolic regulators that can be easily scaled to generate billions of functional NK cells, 2) identified and validated several novel and state-of-the-art CAR, non-CAR and TRUCK based regulators of NK activation to elicit the hyper activated NK cell state and prolonging NK survival, and 3) improved NK response to tumors via tumor microenvironment remodeling. We will target the NK cells towards three life-threatening cancers for which novel treatment options are urgently needed as they are considered among the most lethal cancers; i.e. Pancreatic cancer, Glioblastoma, and Acute Myeloid leukemia (AML). Our iPS culture system, NK activation systems, and gene editing systems, have already been designed towards GMP compatibility. Taken together, these advances ensure that once this study is successful, our Hyper-Targ-IPS-NK cells are poised for rapid translation towards the clinic with our industrial partner.

Innnovation Radar's analysis of this innovation is based on data collected on 17/06/2024.
The unique id of this innovation in the European Commission's IT systems is: 124000