T-knife Therapeutics develops T-cell receptor (TCR) engineered T cell therapies (TCR‑T) for patients with solid tumors. The company leverages a proprietary humanized T‑cell receptor (HuTCR) mouse platform to produce fully human TCRs naturally selected in vivo for optimal affinity and specificity. Its pipeline includes candidates against cancer testis antigens, viral antigens and commonly shared neoantigens. T-knife was founded by T‑cell and immunology experts using technology developed at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine together with Charité University Hospital in Berlin. Leadership includes CEO Thomas M. Soloway and Chairman Alex Mayweg. The company plans to use financing proceeds to expand its scientific team, increase manufacturing capacity and advance its TCR‑T pipeline. T-knife uses a proprietary humanized T-cell receptor (HuTCR) transgenic mouse platform carrying the full human TCRαβ loci to discover fully human TCRs with high affinity and specificity. The company has generated a pipeline of patented, unique TCR candidates, validated the platform for over 90 cancer targets, and its lead TCR has entered clinical development. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance at least four programs into the clinic, ramp up preclinical work for additional pipeline candidates, and discover TCRs against novel targets. T-knife was spun out from the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine with support from Charité University Hospital in Berlin in 2018 and plans to establish a U.S. presence and expand its management team. The company pursues a two-pronged growth strategy of developing an internal pipeline while establishing external partnerships by out-licensing patented TCRs or providing the HuTCR mouse for unbiased discovery. Management and scientific leadership include co-founder Thomas Blankenstein and CEO Elisa Kieback.

Total raised

$188M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Aug 2021