Problem
In general, it is difficult to have an understanding of a pharmacokinetic profile of cell and gene therapy in animals in people. This is because the therapy uses components of your body (e.g., cells) as a "living drug."  In the mouse movie below, CAR T cells are shown accumulating in the tumor (black dots outlined in light blue). There is also excretion-related uptake of the tracer in tissue like the spine, urinary bladder, and bowel.

Vellum's Solution
Vellum has developed a quantitative approach to tag cell and gene therapies, which allows for the imaging and control of "living drugs" used to deliver genetic medicines. The radiotracer has been tested in humans and is safe, with low background in many tissues where cell and gene therapies would be located (lungs, heart, brain, soft tissues).

Vellum's technology allows you to know where and how many CAR T cells are present in a patient...

Our Platform Enables:

Direct comparison of CAR T cell therapies based on their ability to reach and target tumors in patients

Real-time prediction of which patients are most likely to respond

Adaptive clinical trial design that optimizes CAR T cell delivery to tumors and improves patient outcomes

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Our Story

Vellum Biosciences is a Penn Center for Innovation (PCI) Upstart company and was founded in chemical biology and molecular imaging at The University of Pennsylvania. Vellum Biosciences aims to improve upon the develop-ability and effectiveness of the next generation of “living drugs”, such as gene and cell therapies, by designing tools that can effectively monitor and track them over time. The ability to characterize the kinetic profiles, biodistribution, and trafficking pattern of “living drugs” is essential for our understanding of these “living drugs” that are fundamentally different from small molecule drugs, and may also help in the design of of CAR T cell clinical protocols (e.g. safety profile characterization, dose optimization, etc.). Our lead technology iTAG is based on a positron emission tomography (PET) approach that provides exquisite sensitivity and specificity which provides an unprecedented window into cell trafficking and their presence to fight against a patient’s cancer. We have the ability to measure the “kinetics” of therapeutics (e.g. gene and cell therapies) trafficking to any tumor type, whether they are mediating a therapeutic response at on-target sites or creating toxicities off-target. Our approaches will facilitate the development of new “living drugs” and will support the clinical management of patients by early imaging which will predict drug failure or therapeutic response.

Meet our team