TRAMPOLINE PHARMA

Reviving the patient’s immune system to destroy cancer—forever.™

About: Welcome

ABOUT US

TrAMPoline Pharma is a cellular immunotherapy company that is developing personalized (autologous) therapies for solid tumor cancers. Our lead therapeutic candidate, MightyTIL™ is a gene engineered tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) targeting orphan cancer indications (sarcoma, head and neck cancer) and melanoma. MightyTIL has demonstrated significantly enhanced anti-tumor activity in multiple animal tumor models as compared with conventional unmodified TIL.

TrAMPoline was founded with a vision to develop the next generation of cellular immunotherapies to treat solid tumor cancers, that make up 90% of all cancers. The unmet needs in the treatment of solid tumors are significant. ~60% of cancer patients experience T cell immunotherapy failures (including checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T cells, TCR-engineered, TIL).

OUR TECHNOLOGY

MightyTIL™ leverages TrAMPoline’s patented coR8:Amp™ technology which has potent dual functions - enhanced binding of the T cell receptor (TCR) to the cancer cells and enhanced TCR signaling domains that considerably increases the level of T cell activation and killing of cancer cells. MightyTILs demonstrates numerous advantages including the following.

Expanding reactivity to multiple tumor antigens. This is a critical factor in successfully treating cancer and preventing recurrence, since solid tumors mutate at a high rate forming cancer-specific neo-antigens targeted by MightyTILs. This feature offers an advantage over CAR T cells which recognize a single antigen which is often lost during cancer evolution.
MightyTILs show higher functional activity (potency) and increased expression of proliferation/survival receptors as compared with unmodified TILs.
MightyTILs demonstrate increased persistence and reduced exhaustion compared to unmodified TILs, due to reduction in expression of key checkpoint receptors.
MightyTILs are highly sensitive to the growth factor IL-2. Our pre-clinical studies demonstrate that MightyTILs require less IL-2 to generate potent anti-tumor responses. This is an important point as IL-2 toxicity in patients limits TIL efficacy.
MightyTILs exhibit long-lived anti-tumor activity as demonstrated by their ability to respond months after initially transferring them to hosts.

Our Team

Get to know us.

EDUARDO DAVILA, PH.D.

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Davila is a professor in the Department of Medicine, Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado, where serves as Director of Cancer Immunotherapy. His research and translational efforts focus on developing novel T cell-based immunotherapies. His research team has dissected the role of the MyD88 protein in augmenting T cells’ effector functions and persistence. Dr. Davila is also the inventor of the two patents that formed the key I.P. of startup Living Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Miltenyi Biotec in 2017. Its anti-tag chimeric antigen receptor (AT-CAR) engineered T cell therapy is the foundation for several phase 1 clinical trials.

RICHARD C DUKE, PH.D.

President

Dr. Duke is a biotechnology executive, inventor, biomedical researcher and serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in building, financing and managing start-up biotechnology companies. Dr. Duke is a co-scientific founder and former chief executive officer of GlobeImmune (NASD: GBIM) and was involved in the formation and/or management of Newellink, ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals, Sierra Neuropharmaceuticals, MenoGeniX, PeptiVir and Aurora Oncology. These Colorado-based companies have raised more than $200 million in financing and have multiple products in phase I and II clinical trials. Dr. Duke has more than 30 years of experience in biomedical research and is a tenured faculty member at the University of Colorado. He has more than 70 research publications and his work on apoptosis was recognized as the cover article of “Scientific American." He is a graduate of McGill University (B.Sc. and M.Sc.) and the University of Colorado (Ph.D.).

LYNDSEY CRUMP, PH.D.

Senior Scientist

Dr. Crump joined TrAMPoline Pharma as a senior scientist in 2023. In this role, Dr. Crump guides the development of one of our adoptive cell therapy pipelines. Dr. Crump is a cancer biologist with a master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD in Cancer Biology from The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, skiing, and spending time with her husband, her daughter, and her animals.

JING LIU, M.D., PH.D.

Senior Scientist

Dr. Liu is a senior scientist at TrAMPoline Pharma. With four years of experience working in adenovirus gene therapy and six years of experience working in immunotherapy, Dr. Liu specializes in viral vector optimization, homologous engineering, T cell engineering and adoptive cell therapy. In her spare time, Dr. Liu likes hiking, camping, cooking and gardening, and plans to take ski lessons.

GET IN TOUCH

12635 E Montview Blvd., Suite 175 | Aurora, CO 80045