Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology adopts LUMICKS' z-Movi® Cell Avidity Analyzer

AMSTERDAM, May 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In its effort to develop effective cellular immunotherapies for cancer treatment, the Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology (RCI) in Germany has purchased LUMICKS' z-Movi® Cell Avidity Analyzer. The placement highlights the promise of measuring cell avidity between immune cells and their tumor targets to improve the selection of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and accelerate the development of new CAR-T therapies.

The new instrument has been placed in the lab of Dr. Hinrich Abken, Professor and Chair for Genetic Immunotherapy at Regensburg University. Professor Abken is a pioneer in the design and development of CAR T cells for cancer malignancies. His current work is aimed at improving T cell targeting of cancer cells and at translating these strategies into clinical trials.

"We expect to gain greater insight into the mechanism of CAR mediated tumor cell recognition and into the selection of the most potent CAR for clinical application," Prof. Abken said. LUMICKS' z-Movi® Cell Avidity Analyzer will be used by his team to measure the binding strengths between CAR T cells and tumor cells. The instrument is intended to take part in the developmental pipeline for identifying novel therapeutic immune cell interactions that could be exploited  to enhance the efficacy of adoptive cell therapy.

LUMICKS looks forward to supporting one of the leading research centers for interventional immunology in Europe. "In this exciting time, where immunology has emerged as an essential approach to treating cancer, we are excited that RCI will be using the z-Movi to advance their immunotherapy research," said LUMICKS CSO Dr. Andrea Candelli. "We believe the z-Movi can enable Professor Abken and his team to bring new insights into the mechanisms of adoptive cell therapy and to accelerate the development of novel CAR T cell targeting strategies."

About LUMICKS

LUMICKS is a leading life science tools company that develops equipment for Dynamic Single-Molecule and Cell Avidity analysis, two rapidly emerging areas in biology research and immuno-oncology. Built upon innovative technologies, such as optical tweezers (Nobel Prize for Physics 2018) and STED super-resolution microscopy (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2014), LUMICKS tools facilitate the understanding of life to the smallest detail.

LUMICKS tools allow researchers to build the crucial and as yet unfinished bridge between structure and function at both a molecular and a cellular level. This is achieved by applying and measuring forces around biological interactions, enabling the detailed real-time analysis of underlying biological mechanisms. LUMICKS' groundbreaking C-Trap® Optical Tweezers – Fluorescence & Label-free Microscopy, allows scientists to analyze complex biological processes in real-time. Similarly, the z-Movi® Cell Avidity Analyzer enables the measurement and selection of immune cells based on their real-time interactions with target cells. The company was founded in 2014 as an academic spin-off from the research group of Prof. Gijs Wuite, Prof. Erwin Peterman, and Prof. Iddo Heller at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. For more information, visit the company's website at www.lumicks.com.

About z-Movi
 
The z-Movi^® Cell Avidity Analyzer is a novel platform that rapidly measures the binding strength between target and immune cells, providing high-throughput results with single-cell resolution. Cell avidity data are key metrics that correlate with the biological outcome of cellular immunotherapies. Cell avidity insights provide researchers with reproducible and predictive information about the best therapeutic candidates at an early stage, potentially leading to improved candidate selection and dramatically faster drug development. Since its release in 2020, the z-Movi has been adopted by leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies around the world to accelerate the entry of cell therapies into clinical trials.

About RCI

The RCI Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology, an extra-university research center, focuses on translational immunology in the fields of cancer immunotherapy, chronic inflammation and autoimmunity. Its objective is to develop effective cellular immunotherapies in these areas.

For more information contact:

Name: Kassandra Barbetsea, PR & Marketing
Phone: +31 (0) 63 482 09 48
Email: PR@lumicks.com