News

KLAB THERAPEUTICS WINS PRESTIGIOUS BIOFLORIDA 2023 PITCH COMPETITION

10/13/2023 | We’re excited to announce that K-Lab Therapeutics is a winner of the prestigious Moonshot Award at the 26th BioFlorida Annual Conference. K-Lab defeated 16 other up-and-coming biotech startups in competition to take home a $20,000 cash prize.

It’s the first time K-Lab Therapeutics participated in the annual event and we are thrilled with the outcome. The $20,000 grant will allow K-Lab to further invest in research and development of its novel immunotherapies that target MDSC and cancer cells with the goal of curing advanced and metastatic solid cancers.

Preliminary results show administration of KLT-ADC leads to successful treatment of advanced, large solid tumors

10/01/2023 | Multiple clinical studies have addressed the role of immunotherapies for solid cancers. While these studies have demonstrated promising results and improvements over existing therapies, less than half of patients with advanced disease show the clinical benefits of immunotherapy. Furthermore, once tumors start to produce metastases, it becomes one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. Therefore, there is an unmet need for the development of novel approaches to overcome the resistance to cancer immunotherapy, including resistance to checkpoint inhibitors.

To address this question, we have developed a new KLT-ADC that target both cancer cells and MDSCs. In vitro, KLT-ADC  efficiently inhibited the proliferation of both mouse and human tumor cell lines. In vivo administration of KLT-ADC alone led to the inhibition of tumor growth of tumors in a dose-dependent manner. Importantly, the therapeutic effect was associated with the remodeling of the tumor microenvironment, reduction of immunosuppressive myeloid cells, and influx of immune T cells.  A combination of KLT-ADC with anti-PD1 therapy resulted in complete tumor eradication in mice with syngeneic established tumors (initial volume <200 mm³) in 100% treated mice. The cured mice demonstrated long-term protection from tumor re-challenge. Furthermore, the combination therapy of mice with large, advanced established tumors (>200mm³) resulted in 80% tumor eradication.