Cancer-fighting implant shows promise in treating melanoma, pancreatic and colorectal tumors

HOUSTON – (April 8, 2025) – A team of researchers from the Rice Biotech Launch Pad at Rice University has developed an implantable “cytokine factory” that safely triggers potent immune responses against hard-to-treat cancers, including metastatic melanoma, pancreatic and colorectal tumors.

The study, published in The Journal of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, details how an immunoprotected device near the tumor microenvironment containing cells engineered to locally release interleukin-12 (IL-12) — an “IL-12 cytokine factory” — successfully induces the recruitment of specialized immune cells called precursor exhausted T cells (Tpex cells). This Tpex cell recruitment results in a large, durable population of tumor-targeting T cells with broad molecular profiles, both in isolation and in an enhanced manner when implemented in combination with other immunotherapy approaches.

The IL-12 cytokine factories in combination with checkpoint inhibitors successfully eliminated local and distal tumors in preclinical models of metastatic melanoma and colorectal and pancreatic cancers. In addition to this robust efficacy signal, the IL-12 cytokine factory demonstrated safety in both mouse and nonhuman primate models.

This published research will serve as the foundation for an investigational new drug application (IND) with the U.S. FDA in early 2026, and RBL LLC expects to launch an emerging biotech company centered on the groundbreaking IL-12 cytokine factory technology.

“We designed the IL-12 cytokine factory to enhance immunotherapy approaches while minimizing toxicity, a critical need in the treatment of particularly aggressive cancers,” said Omid Veiseh, professor of bioengineering, faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad and senior corresponding author of the publication. “IL-12 is particularly impactful compared to other cytokines, as our research demonstrates that other cytokines primarily recruit homogeneous T cell populations and show reduced efficacy over time, while IL-12 generates a more robust antitumor response by recruiting a more durable, broader repertoire of tumor-targeting T cells.

“We are incredibly grateful to ARPA-H for their support in advancing this groundbreaking project and are hopeful that this technology will significantly impact the lives of cancer patients by enhancing the efficacy of immunotherapy approaches in the clinic.”

“Harnessing the cellular immune system to target solid tumors is a common but often fraught approach to fighting cancer as the associated challenge of efficacious treatment without toxicity remains elusive,” said Nathan Reticker-Flynn, assistant professor of otolaryngology at Stanford University. “Our study demonstrates not only the efficacy of this technology in preclinical models but also its safety profile, which is a critical aspect as we move toward clinical trials. This research represents an important step forward in the quest to provide more effective treatments for patients battling metastatic cancers.”

The research was supported through an Avenge Bio Sponsored Research Award to Rice, the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (RR160047), the National Institutes of Health (R01CA272769, DP2 AI177915) and ARPA-H (AY1AX000003). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding institutions.

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Full Publication Details:

Title:IL-12-producing cytokine factories induce precursor exhausted T cells and elimination of primary and metastatic tumors

Journal: The Journal of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

Corresponding Authors: Omid Veiseh

Full Author List: Amanda M. Nash, Jonathon DeBonis, Danna Murungi, Bertha Castillo, Boram Kim, Fangheng Hu, Courtney Chambers, Annie Nguyen, Andrea Hernandez, Zeshi Wang, Peter D. Rios, Sofia Ghani, Ira Joshi, Douglas Isa, Ningbo Zheng, Weiyi Peng, Oleg A. Igoshin, Jose Oberholzer, H. Courtney Hodges, Nathan Reticker-Flynn and Omid Veiseh

About the Rice Biotech Launch Pad:

The Rice Biotech Launch Pad is a Houston-based accelerator focused on expediting the translation of Rice University’s health and medical technology discoveries into cures. This initiative is designed to help advance internally discovered platform technologies from concept to clinical studies and commercialization. The Rice Biotech Launch Pad will identify and support highly differentiated projects while driving the expansion of Houston as a world-class medical innovation ecosystem. The accelerator will bring together local researchers with a network of industry executives. For more information, please visit https://biotechlaunchpad.rice.edu/.

About RBL LLC:
RBL LLC is a pioneering biotech venture creation studio based in Houston that is dedicated to accelerating the development of breakthrough medical technologies and therapies through company formation. RBL provides entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators with the infrastructure, financial support and strategic guidance as well as access to laboratory space and shared resources in the Texas Medical Center Helix Park. For more information, please visit https://www.rbl-llc.com/.

About Rice: 
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes’ exclusive list of “New Ivies.”