A Melbourne biotechnology company betting on immune cell cargo as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease has enlisted one of Australia's best-known stem cell laboratories to find out whether the idea holds up in human brain tissue.
Evinco Therapeutics and the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute announced a research collaboration to advance a novel natural killer cell-derived extracellular vesicle therapy, known as an NK-EV therapy, for Alzheimer's disease and other neurological conditions.
Evinco develops advanced immune-based therapies for neurological disorders. ARMI, based at Monash University, is Australia's only research institute dedicated to stem cell science and regenerative medicine.
Under the agreement, ARMI will generate human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived brain cell models, and Evinco will test its NK-EV platform against them. For Evinco, the work is a milestone in its proof-of-concept development program, giving the company a way to investigate the effects and potential mechanism of action of its NK-EVs in the brain cell types most closely associated with neuroinflammation. For ARMI, it applies its stem cell platforms to a defined industry drug development program, demonstrating the relevance of its basic research in a translational context.
The laboratory driving the work is led by Dr Nathalie Saurat, whose research examines how cellular ageing in the brain contributes to neurodegenerative disease. Her lab uses human stem cells to grow different types of brain cells and build 2D and 3D models that recreate key features of the ageing human brain. For this collaboration, it will generate and validate iPSC-derived microglia, astrocytes and cortical neurons to model the neuroinflammation associated with Alzheimer's disease, then measure what Evinco's NK-EVs do to those cells.
Dr Saurat, Group Leader and Senior Research Fellow at ARMI, said the collaboration connects two distinct capabilities. "Bringing together Evinco's NK-EV platform with our human stem cell models of Alzheimer's disease creates an exciting opportunity to investigate the mechanism of action of this novel therapeutic approach, while also gaining broader insights into the role of neuroinflammation in AD progression."
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, now the leading cause of death in Australia, and despite continued advances in research, there remains a substantial unmet need for therapies that address the underlying biology of the disease and offer practical, accessible treatment options. Evinco is pursuing an immune-derived, targeted therapy for Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury and related conditions, with its NK-EV platform being developed for intranasal delivery as a potentially simple way of getting therapeutics directly to the brain.
Evinco Therapeutics CEO and Executive Chair, Professor Alan Trounson AO, said, "We are continuing a very effective collaborative program with Dr Saurat and our colleagues at ARMI, linking their expertise in brain cell biology with Evinco's capacity for translation towards a potential effective therapy that could revolutionise the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, now the leading cause of death in Australia."
The collaboration sits inside a broader Evinco strategy to establish the safety, biological activity, mechanism of action and therapeutic potential of the NK-EV platform through a series of developmental studies. For ARMI, it adds to a growing set of industry partnerships and supports the institute's work with clinical and industry partners to carry preclinical research towards first-in-human trials.
Professor Peter Currie, ARMI's Director of Research, said the collaboration reflects the infrastructure and industry relationships the institute has built to move discovery science into development pipelines.
"ARMI's strategy centres on connecting discovery science to industry-led development," Professor Currie said. "Evinco's NK-EV platform gives us a defined application for our stem cell models. This collaboration adds to the network of industry and clinical relationships we are building to carry regenerative medicine research towards first-in-human trials, creating meaningful impact for patients."
