NEW YORK – Kyverna Therapeutics on Thursday announced a multiyear collaboration with Alphabet subsidiary and Google sister company Verily to study its cell therapies for autoimmune disease.
Initially, the companies will use Verily's immune mapping platform, dubbed Immune Profiler, to identify biomarkers of response to KYV-101, an autologous CAR T-cell therapy Kyverna is studying in Phase I trials in the US and Europe as a treatment for lupus nephritis. The firms said Kyverna can glean insights into patients' immune function as they receive its CAR T-cell therapy using the tools available within Verily's platform, which combines high-resolution molecular phenotyping with cytometry, whole-genome sequencing, genetics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and proteomics analysis.
KYV-101 is designed to deplete B cells in the patient's body. "B-cell depletion using CAR T cells represents a new frontier with curative potential for autoimmune patients," Charlie Kim, head of molecular science at Verily, said in a statement. "Together we will be uncovering the biological basis of the immune reset that confers durable therapeutic response in these patients."
Kyverna and South San Francisco, California-based Verily will also implement digital tools and technologies to draw out insights from longitudinal data collected in real-world settings as well as clinical trial sites. Kyverna CEO Peter Maag suggested this data could support a regulatory submission for KYV-101.
"We are pleased to partner with Verily based on our shared vision to create the future landscape of clinical research, and to enable broader data collection from real-world settings that may contribute to regulatory decision-making," Maag said in a statement.
In addition to developing KYV-101 in lupus nephritis, Emeryville, California-based Kyverna is also testing the drug's potential in other B cell-driven autoimmune diseases.