LurexBio is an early-stage research company. We're developing an approach designed to mark a tumor's surface so the immune system can find it, using immune memory the body already has.
Figure 1. What immune cells do at a tumor surface
Illustrative concept. Not a rendering of experimental data. No in vitro or in vivo work has been completed to date.
Two of the deadliest cancers share the same fundamental challenge: they evade immune recognition.
of MSS Colorectal Cancer is immune-cold
of Pancreatic Cancer (PDAC) is immune-cold
Sources: Frontiers in Oncology (2023); The Oncologist (2024); PMC/NIH (2020). PDAC figure reflects tumors lacking the dMMR biomarker.
Many of today's immunotherapies are designed to strengthen an immune response that already exists. Cold tumors often show limited immune recognition, so there is relatively little activity for those therapies to build on.
Cold tumors contain few immune cells and often go unnoticed by immune surveillance. The immune system doesn't see the tumor as a threat.
With limited recognition, fewer immune cells enter the tumor and immune activity stays low. The body's natural response is weak or inactive against the tumor.
Many current immunotherapies work best when there's already some immune activity in the tumor. When activity is minimal, these therapies have less to amplify.
Helping the immune system recognize and respond to cold tumors could expand the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy. This is where LurexBio's early-stage research is focused.
Helping the immune system recognize cold tumors is one of the most active areas of research in cancer immunotherapy today.
Read why it mattersLurexBio is designed to give cold tumors a recognition signal before downstream immunotherapies ever engage. Each component below plays a distinct role, and each is grounded in published biology.
A synthetic immune flag designed to resemble something the immune system already recognizes as foreign -- using recognition the body may already have, without genetic alteration.
A delivery platform designed to carry and establish NeoTag™ at the surface, without genetic alteration or a viral vector.
Programmable activation controls designed to restrict platform activity to the intended target, time, and context.
The coordination architecture designed to determine when and how the platform engages.
Checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T, bispecifics, and cancer vaccines are built to amplify immune engagement that has to exist first. LurexBio is designed to sit one step upstream, generating a recognition signal those therapies rely on but do not generate on their own.
Figure 2. Where the platform sits relative to approved immunotherapy*
Designed to install a recognition signal directly at the tumor surface.
Checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T, bispecifics, and vaccines amplify recognition once it exists.
More immune-cold tumors could become engageable by therapies already in clinical use.
Short posts working through what a cold tumor is, and why it resists the therapies medicine already has.
Read our updates