Adaptimmune, a biotechnology company headquartered at the Navy Yard, is ready for the next chapter of its ongoing search for a therapy that converts a person’s immune system into a cancer-killing machine, writes Alison McCook for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The company’s signature therapy, Tecelra, recently became the first Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment that works by modifying the body’s own immune cells to attack a solid tumor. It is also the first treatment advance in years for synovial sarcoma, which is often diagnosed in people under the age of 30.

Now, the Philadelphia company is waiting to receive the first blood samples from patients to start applying its treatment. After the samples have been received, they will be combined with coated beads designed to adhere to the person’s specific immune cells used in Tecelra. Those extracted immune cells are then mixed with a harmless virus that provides the genetic instructions needed to target the person’s tumor.

The company is hoping that Tecelra will open the door to creating immune therapies for various other solid tumors.

“If you can find the right target that you could build a [engineered immune cell] for, basically the options are limitless,” said Dennis Williams, the senior vice president for late-stage development at Adaptimmune.

Read more about Adaptimmune and the next chapter in its cancer therapy in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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