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6. Lion TCR

Hailed as the next frontier in cancer treatment, cancer immunotherapy turns the immune system into a tumor killer. To harness this capability of the immune system, Lion TCR was set up in 2015 by Dr. Victor Li Lietao and Professor Antonio Bertolleti. Bertolleti is the research director and program director at A*STAR’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences.

Scientists at Lion TCR modify a protein on a specific subset of immune cells known as T cells to make them home in on cancer cells in the body. Lion TCR is tailoring its approach to the treatment of virus-induced cancers such as liver cancer, and three of its six candidate ‘living drugs’ have entered into clinical trials.



7. Lucence Diagnostics

With a focus on the rapid detection of cancer in a non-invasive manner, Lucence Diagnostics, a Singapore-based clinical laboratory and international molecular diagnostics company founded in 2016, has developed a liquid biopsy test for cancer diagnostics and assessment of cancer risk. The diagnostic tests have a turnaround time of 48 hours and help identify mutations in cancer cells that can be used by oncologists to guide therapy.

Lucence Diagnostics recently emerged among the top five startups at the SLINGSHOT@SWITCH2017 competition which saw more than 900 applicants spanning 16 countries present their technologies and business ideas. CEO and founder Dr. Tan Min-Han received a grant of S$100,000 from SPRING Singapore to continue building his company and vision.



8. MerLion Pharmaceuticals

The irresponsible use of antibiotics has resulted in the widespread appearance of resistant microbes. Recognizing this threat to public health, MerLion Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2002 and has a produced a market-ready antibacterial, finofloxacin, for the treatment of urinary tract infections. Finofloxacin also eradicates bacteria that are responsible for causing gastric ulcers.

The company raised US$30 million in Series B funding in 2007 before completing another Series C financing round which raised US$7 million in 2010. Most recently, in June 2017, MerLion Pharmaceuticals, together with the United Kingdom’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, was awarded a grant from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to test the efficacy of finofloxacin against biological threat agents.



9. MiRXES

Cancer cells are known to release specific molecules known as micro-RNAs (miRNA) into the blood that betray their presence in the body. MiRXES, a spin-off from A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute, capitalizes on this unique signature of cancer cells to perform cancer screening.

Founded in 2014 by Professor Too Heng Phon, Dr. Zhou Lihan and Dr. Zou Ruiyang, the company has four cancer test kits at varying stages of development and clinical validation. MiRXES has collaborations with clinical and academic institutions in China, Japan, Korea and the US, as well as industry partners such as Johnson and Johnson.



10. Tessa Therapeutics

Also riding on the cancer immunotherapy wave is Tessa Therapeutics, which was established in 2012 by Mr. Andrew Khoo, Mr. Francis Chua and Dr. Malcolm Brenner, the founding director of the Centre for Cell and Gene Therapy at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Using virus-specific T cells, scientists at Tessa Therapeutics are training the immune system to destroy cancerous cells that arose from Epstein-Barr Virus infection. Three of Tessa Therapeutic’s seven candidate ‘living drugs’ are currently in clinical trials, with one candidate called TT10 already in Phase 3 trials for nasopharyngeal cancer. In March 2017, Tessa Therapeutics announced the acquisition of Euchloe Bio, a spin-off biotechnology company from A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network, granting it access to a panel of immune regulatory molecules that complement its T cell therapies.

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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
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