NEW YORK – Tevogen this week said Databricks will assist with the development of PredicTcell, its artificial intelligence-driven target prediction model for precision immunotherapy.
Tevogen aims to use PredicTcell to model immunologically active HLA-positive peptide complexes and predict T-cell receptor engagement with those complexes. Databricks will support the development of PredicTcell by providing a dedicated data engineering team and lending its expertise in building, scaling, and governing data and AI systems. The companies aim to advance two foundational models based on Tevogen's ExacTcell platform, which will enable researchers to predict immunologically active peptides and build a predictive T-cell receptor binding model.
Warren, New Jersey-based Tevogen is also working with Microsoft Research on data infrastructure, scientific research, and AI expertise. Under that agreement, signed in January, Tevogen and Microsoft will integrate Microsoft's advanced AI tools and the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and identify opportunities to develop products using the ExacTcell platform as well as advance proprietary algorithms that decode interactions between HLA and T cells.
As a healthcare company, Tevogen has three strategic focus areas. Under Tevogen Bio, the company is advancing off-the-shelf, genetically unmodified T-cell therapies. With Tevogen.AI, the firm leverages machine learning for drug discovery and healthcare delivery. And through its Tevogen Generics division, the firm aims to increase access to essential medicines.
In a recent Phase I clinical trial, Tevogen compared the activity of its HLA-A*02:01-restricted SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell therapy TVGN 489 against no cell treatment in high-risk patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Patients with various conditions like cancer, lung disease, and cardiovascular disease were included in the interventional group. In results published in Blood Advances in October 2024, patients who received TVGN 489 saw their symptoms improve and resolve faster than those in the comparator group. No patients in the intervention group had symptom progression, post-acute sequelae, or recurrent COVID-19 in the six months after treatment, including two patients that received hematopoietic stem cell transplants after receiving the therapy. Among patients in the observational group, two experienced serious COVID-19 complications.
The company is also pursuing preclinical studies of T-cell therapies targeting high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV)-related cervical cancer prevention, Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphomas, and HPV-related mouth and throat cancer.