Jack Silberstein, CEO of Deck Bio, is developing next-generation T cell engagers designed to activate the patient's immune system to shrink tumors. These T cell engagers are bispecific molecules that alert immune cells to recognize targets on cancer cells and kill them by binding to both the cancer cells and the T cells. While earlier T cell engagers have succeeded in treating blood cancers, Deck Bio focuses on solid tumors where previous approaches have failed. Their lead molecule demonstrates strong potency and high safety, showing a response in patients with treatment resistance across lung, gastric, esophageal, liver, and head and neck cancers.

Jack explains, "At Deck Bio, we're focused on next-generation cancer immunotherapies called T cell engagers and are working to engage a patient's immune response to shrink tumors, extend patients' lifespan, and deliver durable benefits in treating cancer. For T cell engagers, there's been a lot of excitement recently because, in 2022, we had the first-ever T cell engager approved for solid tumors. We're looking to build on these learnings, expand the reach of T cell engagers, and drive greater durable benefit."

"As you mentioned, these T cell engagers have been around for a while. With liquid tumors, there's a little bit of an easier problem to solve because, in terms of the cancer cells there, you're able to deplete them, and if you have any type of healthy tissue recognition of cells in your blood, that's not that terrible of a toxicity."

"But in solid tumors, there's been a lot of failures in the field where people have tried to develop something against a solid tumor target that they thought was cancer-specific. Then, because of expression on other healthy tissues throughout the body, there were these dose-limiting toxicities. And just to level set in terms of what a T cell engager is, and help explain that, it's a bispecific molecule. What it most typically looks like is what people think of as an antibody, with that classical Y shape."

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