The TCRs were discovered in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Rosenberg, PhD, chief of surgery at NCI and a pioneer in the fields of immunotherapy and gene therapy for patients with advanced cancers. KRAS and TP53 mutations are among the most common mutated genes in cancer.

The portfolio of TP53- and KRAS-targeted T-cell therapies complements Neogene's proprietary neoantigen TCR discovery and T-cell engineering platform. Neogene's platform aims to identify neoantigens and suitable TCRs to target for individual patients and enable the engineering of T cells with these neoantigen-specific TCRs for patients suffering from a broad spectrum of solid tumors, Neogene said.

Neogene has been granted worldwide rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize this TCR portfolio of autologous and allogeneic T-cell therapy product candidates that are engineered with CRISPR technology for the treatment or prevention of cancer.

Pursuant to the terms of the license agreement, Neogene will provide an upfront payment and certain clinical, regulatory, and sales milestone payments, as well as royalties on net sales of products covered by the license.