Luis Álvarez-Vallina, Scientific Director at Banc de Sang I Teixits, shared on LinkedIn:
“We are delighted to share that our work, ‘A Drug-Gated, Modular STAb-T Immunotherapy With External Control,’ has been featured as a Frontispiece in Advanced Science!
The illustration captures the principle behind our approach: a small-molecule switch promotes functional T cell engager assembly, enabling immune synapse formation and tumour cell killing. This provides external control over when STAb-T cells redirect T-cell activity against cancer.
Congratulations to Susana Luengo Arias, Anaïs Jiménez Reinoso and the entire CNIO-HMRIB Cancer Immunotherapy Unit Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) team, and thank you to our collaborators and supporters. Special thanks to Leonora Martínez-Núñez at Radiant Molecules Studio for bringing the science to life.”
Title: A Drug-Gated, Modular STAb-T Immunotherapy With External Control (Adv. Sci. 61/2026)
Authors: Susana Luengo-Arias, Carmen Domínguez-Alonso, Ivana Zagorac, Antonio Tapia-Galisteo, Eva García-Veros, Laura Rubio-Pérez, Marina Gómez-Rosel, Patricia Fuentes, Patricia Hernández-López, Óscar Aguilar-Sopeña, Laura Almagro-Puente, Sonia Martínez-González, Lucía Cañizares-Moscato, María Rivas-Sánchez, Belén Blanco, Ángel Ramírez-Fernández, Laura Díez-Alonso, Carmen Blanco-Aparicio, Javier Arroyo-Ródenas, Jorge Martínez-Torrecuadrada, María L. Toribio, Pedro Roda-Navarro, Anaïs Jiménez-Reinoso, Luis Álvarez-Vallina.
Read the research article.
Key Takeaways
- A controllable approach to immunotherapy: The researchers developed a STAb-T therapy that can be switched on or off using a small molecule called rapalog, giving them greater control over T-cell activity.
- Targeted cancer killing: The engineered cells produce two antibody components that work together to guide T cells toward CD19-positive cancer cells and destroy them.
- Encouraging early results: The therapy showed strong cancer-cell killing in laboratory experiments and slowed tumor growth in mouse models when activated with rapalog.
- Potential safety benefits: The treatment produced lower levels of several inflammatory proteins, suggesting it could help limit some of the immune-related side effects seen with cellular therapies.
- Potential beyond blood cancers: The researchers also adapted the platform to target EGFR, suggesting it could eventually be used against different types of cancer.
- Still in the preclinical stage: Although the results are promising, further research is needed before its safety and effectiveness can be tested in patients.
Read more articles about Immune Oncology on OncoDaily.