Vor Biopharma, an oncology company pioneering engineered hematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) for the treatment of cancer, and Arbor Biotechnologies, an early-stage life sciences company, today announced an agreement to use Arbor’s gene editing technologies to engineer hematopoietic stem cells, towards the goal of developing therapies for the treatment of blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia.
“At Vor, we are committed to expanding our platform with best-in-class genome engineering technologies such that we can accomplish whatever edit to hematopoietic stem cells is necessary to protect cancer patients from experiencing on-target, off-tumor toxicity from targeted therapies after they receive a bone marrow transplant,” said Tirtha Chakraborty, PhD, Vor’s VP and Head of Research. “We believe this strategic collaboration with Arbor will allow us to leverage the potential of Arbor’s technologies for precisely editing the HSC genome to remove certain cell-surface proteins, thereby making targeted therapies even more cancer-specific and effective.”
The collaboration is non-exclusive and applies to pre-clinical research only. Further terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.
“Arbor’s proprietary gene editing technologies can enable Vor’s approach to transform the field of targeted cancer therapies,” said David Cheng, CEO of Arbor. “We’re excited to collaborate with Vor to directly improve medical outcomes for patients.”