IO Biosciences awarded US patent for GEMS technology

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded Doylestown-based IO Biosciences with a patent for nucleic acid constructs comprising gene-editing multisites (GEMS) and their uses.

According to the company, the technology streamlines manufacturing and reduces the time to market for therapeutic proteins and cancer-fighting gene-modified cell therapies. It is used to develop cell therapies for oncology using a universal cell, such as natural killer (NK) cells, and create stable antibody producing cell lines rapidly without using viral methods.

The technology is suited for multiple gene insertions that allow for the production of complex proteins and gene-modified cell therapies. These therapies often are used to treat cancer.

“With our GEMS plug-and-play system integrated in universal cells, the resulting universal-GEMS cells can serve as a base for many therapies down the line,” Dr. Sicco Popma, IO Biosciences founder and CEO, said. “Putting our GEMS into a universal natural killer cell, for example, allows rapid and accurate subsequent insertion of various single or multiple chimeric antigen receptors through its plug-and-play feature. This allows for manufacturing of multiple therapeutic cell lines with the only variable being the gene of interest.”

The GEMS platform can be licensed and is available for protein production services.