Dr Martin Pule – Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Autolus – wins prestigious UCL Business Award
London, 11 June 2015 – Autolus Limited (“Autolus”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of next-generation engineered T-cell therapies for haematological and solid tumours, today announced that Dr Martin Pule, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Autolus, has won the UCL Business Award 2015.
The UCL Awards for Enterprise event, now in its eighth year, was held on 10th June at a ceremony held at UCL Advances’ new incubator space for product and creative businesses at King’s Cross, BASE KX. The award recognises the efforts and accomplishments of UCL’s most innovative and entrepreneurial staff, students, graduates and partner organisations in furthering enterprise and entrepreneurship at UCL.
Dr Edward Hodgkin, Chief Executive Officer of Autolus, said:
“Dr Martin Pule, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Autolus, is a thought-leader in T-cell engineering and we are delighted that he has won the prestigious UCL Business Award. Martin’s pioneering work on T-cell programming has the potential to transform cancer therapy and we expect Autolus to be at the forefront of this revolution in medicine.”
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About Autolus
Autolus is a private biopharmaceutical company, focused on the development and commercialisation of engineered T-cell immunotherapy products based on its proprietary T-cell programming technology. The shortcomings of current CAR treatment include a lack of selective tumour targeting mechanisms, serious side-effects associated with efficacy and the inability to overcome the hostile solid tumour microenvironment. Autolus is developing T-cell products incorporating technology components designed to overcome these shortcomings and to allow programmable CAR T-cell activity tailored for specific clinical situations. It is expected that this platform will provide a source of sustainable competitive advantage in both haematological and solid cancers, most of which are not addressable using the current CAR technology. Autolus’ shareholders include Syncona LLP and UCL Business PLC. For further information please visit the Company’s website at: www.autolus.com
About the UCL Awards for Enterprise 2015
The awards recognise the efforts and accomplishments of UCL’s most innovative and entrepreneurial staff, students, graduates and partner organisations in furthering enterprise and entrepreneurship at UCL. To find out more visit:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/about/awards/2015/...
About Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Immunotherapy
CAR immunotherapy involves re-programming a patient’s immune system to kill tumour cells. T-cells are extracted from a patient’s blood, manipulated outside the body to incorporate the CAR gene, and then returned to the patient by infusion. The CAR gene introduces a targeting mechanism to the T-cells, enabling them to recognise, engage and destroy tumour cells in a highly-specific manner. Initial clinical trials of CAR T-cells in B-cell malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (“ALL”), suggest that this approach may transform treatment of cancer patients, many of whom have no other therapeutic options.