Neutrophils are central to the future of solid tumor immunotherapy.
Solid tumors create a highly suppressive microenvironment that blocks immune cells and limits the effectiveness of current immunotherapies. Neutrophils, however, naturally home to inflammation and can infiltrate even the most hostile tumor microenvironment.
Breakthrough studies now show that specialised anti-tumor neutrophils play a decisive role in tumors control and immunotherapy response:
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Immunotherapy-activated neutrophils adopt an interferon-stimulated anti-tumor programme, recruiting and activating T and NK cells within the TME (Benguigui et al., Cancer Cell 2024; Gungabeesoon et al., Cell 2023).
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Anti-tumor neutrophils directly eliminate tumor antigen-escape variants — a key failure point for CAR-T and other targeted therapies using innate, antigen-independent cytotoxic mechanisms (Hirschhorn et al., Cell 2023).
Lift's IMAN platform builds on this science by providing a consistent, therapeutically-optimised source of anti-tumor neutrophils capable of infiltrating solid tumors and re-activating anti-tumor immunity in patients who have exhausted standard treatments.
IMANs: Defining the next generation of neutrophil-based cancer therapy.
IMANs home naturally to inflamed tumor sites and actively infiltrate the solid tumor microenvironment – reaching niches that are typically inaccessible to other immune cells and cell therapies.
Tumor infiltration
IMANs recruit and activate cytotoxic T and NK cells, converting immunologically “cold” tumors into “hot” inflamed environments.
immune
activation & recruitment
IMANs directly kill tumor
cells using innate neutrophil cytotoxic mechanisms, enabling them to target heterogeneous tumors and antigen-escape variants.
Antigen-
independent
tumor killing
IMANs are produced using
a scalable, GMP-ready manufacturing process
that supports consistent product quality.
Predictable,
scalable
manufacturing
IMANs avoid many of the issues that limit effectiveness of other neutrophil therapies
Maintained
functional
activity
Our platform at a glance.
IMAN MoA Video.
