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ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ScaleReady, in collaboration with Wilson Wolf Manufacturing and Bio-Techne Corporation and CellReady, has awarded G-Rex Grants totaling $475,000 to three leading investigators at the Baylor College of Medicine's (BCM) Center for Cell and Gene Therapy Institute (CAGT).

Dr. Ann Leen, a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at BCM's CAGT, received a $275,000 G-Rex Grant for process development and IND enabling studies related to tumor-associated neoantigen specific T cell therapies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in pre- and post-hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplant.  Dr. Leen has been with BCM's CAGT since 2002, is the senior or co-author on more than 100 publications, is a named inventor on 14 published patents (including several relating to G-Rex), served as the principal investigator on more than 15 clinical trials using "first in human" cell therapies, and is a co-founder of two T cell therapy companies (Allovir and Marker Therapeutics).

Dr. Katie McKenna, an Assistant Professor at BCM's CAGT, received a $100,000 G-Rex Grant to develop a novel G-Rex based approach for culturing three dimensional (3D) solid tumor spheroids. Dr. McKenna's vision is to establish these 3D tumor spheroid models as a reliable representation of the tumor microenvironment (TME) compared to in vivo murine studies that traditionally accompany an Investigational New Drug (IND) application.  Dr. McKenna will begin by establishing organoid models for pancreatic, breast, and lung cancer tissues before expanding to other tumor models.

Dr. Dimitrios Laurin Wagner, a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at BCM's CAGT, and Dr. Marie Pouzolles, Staff Scientist in the Wagner Lab, received a $100,000 G-Rex Grant to develop innovative gene editing platforms to create potent immune cell therapies.  Specifically, the G-Rex Grant will be deployed to scale up the manufacture of non-viral gene edited T cells, leveraging their optimized non-viral CRISPR-Cas-based method for CAR insertion into specific loci of primary human T cells.  Dr. Wagner received his M.D., Ph.D. from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin where he was the head of Research and Development at the Berlin Center for Advanced Therapies and a junior group leader at the Berlin Institutes of Health Center for Regenerative Therapies.  At BCM's CAGT, Dr. Wagner and Dr. Pouzolles plan to move genome editing into the clinics to create transformative anti-cancer cell therapies.

"Baylor's Center for Cell and Gene Therapy has long been at the forefront of Cell and Gene Therapy innovation and played a pivotal role in the success of G-Rex technology.  G-Rex would not have become the gold standard for T cell therapy manufacturing without the input and help we received from the early adopters at Baylor.  It's gratifying to know that our G-Rex Grant program will help these accomplished investigators advance their scientific objectives" said John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Wolf Manufacturing and co-inventor of G-Rex.

ScaleReady's G-Rex Grant Program is a $20M initiative to advance the state of cell and gene-modified cell therapy (CGT) development and manufacturing by awarding individual Grant Awards worth up to $300,000.  G-Rex Grant Recipients also gain access to exclusive support from ScaleReady's growing consortium of G-Rex Grant Partners who bring best-in-class tools and technologies as well as unparalleled knowledge and expertise in the areas of cGMP manufacturing, quality and regulatory affairs, CGT business operations, and more.

For more information about the G-Rex® Grant Program, please contact info@scaleready.com.

About ScaleReady
ScaleReady provides the field of cell and gene-modified cell therapy (CGT) with a G-Rex centric manufacturing platform that enables the world's most practical, flexible, scalable, and affordable CGT drug product development and manufacturing.

The G-Rex manufacturing platform is currently used by a rapidly growing list of over 800 organizations and is producing drug products for approximately 50% of CGT clinical trials as well as 5 commercially approved CGT drugs.

CGT entities relying on the breadth and scope of ScaleReady's expertise can expect to save years of time and millions of dollars on the path to CGT commercialization.

For more information about the ScaleReady G-Rex® Grant Program, please contact info@scaleready.com.

About Wilson Wolf Manufacturing
Wilson Wolf (www.wilsonwolf.com) is dedicated to simplifying cell and gene-modified cell (CGT) therapy research, process development, and manufacturing.  This is being accomplished through its scalable G-Rex technology, which is used throughout the world in CGT applications ranging from basic research to commercial drug production.

Wilson Wolf's mission is to create hope for cancer patients, one G-Rex® device at a time.

About Bio-Techne Corporation
Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) is a global life sciences company providing innovative tools and bioactive reagents for the research and clinical diagnostic communities. Bio-Techne, in partnership with Wilson Wolf, is creating products such as media and cytokines that are specifically tailored to G-Rex® Bioreactors, including right-sized reagent quantities in containers that are tailored to high throughput closed-system manufacturing. For more information on Bio-Techne and its brands, please visit https://www.bio-techne.com or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.

Contact: David Clair, Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Development
david.clair@bio-techne.com
612-656-4416 

About CellReady LLC
CellReady is the world's first and only G-Rex centric contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in G-Rex based cell and gene-modified cell therapy development and manufacturing. The company offers a wide range of services to support the development and commercialization of these therapies.

CellReady's mission is to create hope for cancer patients, one G-Rex® process at a time.

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SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation