On October 15, 2026 Expression Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage gene and cell therapy company, reported that NCI SBIR within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a Phase II grant of $2,058,885 to advance ET501, its investigational PTK7-targeted γδ (gamma delta) T-cell therapy, for children with high-risk neuroblastoma. Over two years, the award funds program activities intended to support an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer of the sympathetic nervous system. U.S. physicians diagnose more than 650 cases each year, at a median age of 17 months. For children with high-risk disease, five-year event-free survival is 51.2% and five-year overall survival is 62.5%, according to a Children’s Oncology Group analysis of 4,832 patients enrolled from 2007 to 2017.
ET501 applies the company’s ADEPT-STAR platform, which uses the company’s LENTeT lentiviral delivery system to engineer γδ T cells that secrete a T-cell engager at the tumor site. γδ T cells recognize stressed and cancerous cells without requiring a tissue-type (HLA) match. ET501 is designed to secrete a PTK7×CD3 engager that binds PTK7 (protein tyrosine kinase 7), a protein on the surface of neuroblastoma cells, and CD3 on T cells, directing both the infused γδ T cells and T cells already in the tumor against cancer cells.
"Children with high-risk neuroblastoma need treatment options beyond today’s regimens," said David Townson, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Expression Therapeutics. "This award funds the work that stands between ET501 and an IND application. It also advances the second program on our γδ T-cell platform, ET401 for adults with neuroendocrine tumors."
"ET501 is designed to have γδ T cells produce a PTK7-directed engager inside the tumor, where it can recruit the immune cells already present," said Brian Petrich, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development at Expression Therapeutics and Contact Principal Investigator on the SBIR award. "This grant funds the studies that will show whether that design performs as intended and whether it supports an IND application."
About ET501
ET501 is a preclinical, investigational γδ T-cell therapy candidate. It has not been tested in humans, and neither the FDA nor any other regulatory authority has approved it for any use.
(Press release, Expression Therapeutics, OCT 15, 2026, View Source;t-cell-therapy-for-children-with-high-risk-neuroblastoma-302908504.html [SID1234673499])