Allegrow Biotech engineers technology to activate immune cells

The startup’s invention can be used to treat and potentially cure diseases like cancer.

Hong Kong startup Allegrow Biotech Ltd has engineered a proprietary artificial cell technology that mimicks the immunological synapse to expand and activate immune cells with unparalleled efficiency.

The technology can be used to treat and potentially cure diseases such as cancer by generating better cells faster.

“We focus on using biomaterials to address challenges in cell culture, particularly in culturing white blood cells — the immune cells,” Laurence Lau, co-founder and CEO at Allegrow Biotech, told Hong Kong Business. “Immune cells have enormous therapeutic potential, but their growth and culture have always been a bottleneck.”

Allegrow Biotech, which started in March 2022 as a spinoff start-up from the biomaterial lab at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, got its name from  “allegro,” which in music means fast. The last letter completes the word “grow,” alluding to the startup’s mission to rapidly advance its invention.

Allegrow uses a synthetic biomaterial that is purely chemical and animal-free. It outsources common raw materials such as fatty acids, endotoxins, and proteins to create artificial cells.

“We are maintaining a reagent kind of product for users [like] university labs, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies,” Lau said. “They add our product into their cell growth mixture, then the immune cells can be activated and be further extended or genetically modified.”

Allegrow offers two types of reagent products, for growing natural killer cells and T cell. – natural killer cells destroy infected and diseased cells, and T cells target and eliminate harmful cells to support the immune system.

The startup has achieved 60% more cell yields for T cells and almost five times more yield for natural killer cells during cell culture or bioprocessing.

“We do our own chemical modifications so we can assemble these materials to a certain structure,” Lau said.

Allegrow’s innovation starts from its business approach that seeks to tackle the fierce competition in cell therapy, including gene and immune cell therapies.

"Many of these companies target the same molecular markers, such as the CD20 and CD19 antigens, which means all of these cell drugs will be very similar, even after approval, and will be sold at high prices,” the research scientist said.

As a result, many biotech companies find it difficult to sustain their business and are forced to find ways to differentiate their cell products from their competition.

This is where Allegrow comes in. The startup gives these businesses the option to create their own formulations by genetically modifying cells, letting them target the most relevant cells in the body.

“While most companies modify immune cells to target specific diseases, the core cells being used often remain the same,” Lau said. “Our approach seeks to provide a unique way to modify the cells themselves, offering a new differentiator in an increasingly crowded market.”

These cells are sold for research use only, with prices starting at $1900 (US$600) per 1.5 ml vial. Allegrow seeks to upgrade its products to clinical-grade quality.

“If these cells enter the clinical phase, they can be used to treat blood cancer, other types of cancers, and autoimmune disorders,” the CEO said. “It has great potential for addressing these kinds of diseases because, fundamentally, it works by rebuilding the immune system outside the body.”

“If we want to provide a clinical solution, we need a contractor who has a good manufacturing practice facility to produce everything. So we are actually raising funds to upgrade our current research product into clinical-grade products,” he added.

Allegrow expects to have their clinical-grade product ready in two years, followed by proof of concept through clinical trials. “Our ultimate goal is to make a significant move into therapeutics."

The startup has secured a $10m funding that will be released in tranches over four years. It is also raising $15m (US$2m) to upgrade its product line to clinical-grade quality.