Short Description: Many existing cancer treatments anchor payloads to tumor cells via overexpressed tumor antigens, limiting their effectiveness against heterogeneous tumors with unknown or variable antigen expression. Myaab is a personalized cancer therapy using tumor-derived autoantibodies functionalized with therapeutic payloads to target multiple tumor antigens simultaneously. This method minimizes immune response, reduces cost, and allows fast turnaround for post-surgical cancer treatment.
Lessons Learned: We initially believed a personalized autoantibody treatment could broadly serve oncologists across tumor types. Through customer discovery, we learned pancreatic tumors are poor candidates and tumor tissue is limited after neoadjuvant therapy. We now focus on ovarian cancer, targeting gynecologic oncologists and prioritizing logistically feasible, low-cost personalized treatment to reduce recurrence.
Names and Affiliation of Team members:
Emma Burns, MBA Student, University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, Health Care Management
Shruthi Murali, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Bioengineering
Andrew Tsourkas, Faculty, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Bioengineering
Watch a video of this technology here.