Oncternal Therapeutics has worked with the Karolinska Institute to develop CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies targeted at RUR1

Biopharmaceutical company Oncternal Therapeutics today announced that it has established a research and development partnership with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden to advance CAR-T cell and CAR-NK cell therapies targeted at RUR1.
Dr Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, of the NextGenNK Centre at the Karolinska Institute, said: "Given that NK cells were discovered at the Karolinska Institute, we are pleased to work with industry partners to translate scientific advances into next-generation cell therapies that benefit cancer patients.
We look forward to working with Oncternal to develop T-cell and NK cell therapies for ROR1, an effective target for many oncology adaptations," said Dr. James Breitmeyer, President and CEO of Oncternal.
ROR1 has become an important and undeveloped target for cancer treatment, and we believe that CAR-T and CAR-NK treatments targeting RUR1 have significant prospects for both hematopathic and solid tumor patients."
OR1 is considered a very promising target because it is located on the surface of the cell and, more importantly, it is highly expressed in tumor cells and very low in adult healthy tissue.