Author: edgover

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our esteemed colleague and friend, Professor Jeff W. Pollard, on 1 May 2023.

Jeff, who died peacefully at home after struggling against cancer, was a Founder, Director, and adviser to Macomics Limited, and was passionate about developing novel therapies targeting tumour-associated macrophages.

Jeff was also a Professor of Resilience Biology in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, at the University of Edinburgh, and for nearly a decade led the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH), as Director, (2013-2022).

Jeff leaves a huge legacy to the cancer research community and to the world of macrophage and reproductive biology.

Career

Jeff Pollard graduated with a first-class special honours degree in Zoology from Sheffield University followed by a PhD at Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CRUK) in London. He spent a post-doctoral period at Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto and thereafter, took a Faculty position at King’s College University of London. In 1988 he joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York where he worked for 24 years prior to moving to Edinburgh in 2013 as Director of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health. At the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Professor Pollard was the Louis Goldstein Swann Chair in Women’s Health, Deputy Director of the NCI funded Cancer Center, and Director of the NIH funded Center for the Study of Reproductive Biology and Women’s Health.

Jeff performed research in women’s reproductive health for his entire career with a recent emphasis on the mechanisms of action of female sex steroid hormones in controlling cell proliferation and on the tumour microenvironment of breast cancer. In the former programme his lab sought to understand the mechanism of progesterone in negatively regulating oestrogen-induced uterine epithelial cell proliferation and in the preparation of the uterus for blastocyst implantation. In the latter programme, he pioneered studies on the role of macrophages and demonstrated that they promote tumour progression and malignancy. His work focused upon mechanisms behind these pro-tumoral actions of macrophages with a particular emphasis on metastatic disease.

Jeff was a member of the COST actions Mye-EUNITER and Mye-InfoBank, an European multi-centre initiative focused on identifying novel myeloid targets for cancer therapy.

Fellowships and awards

Jeff was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

Jeff Pollard received several awards most notably the American Cancer Society “Medal of Honour for Basic Science Research” for his studies in tumour immunology (2010), Rothschild Yvette–Meynet Curie award (2009), the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2013 – 2018) and the Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (2013 – 2021).

Family

With his devoted wife and lifelong partner Ooi Thye Chong he shared an enduring passion for Japanese art, food and wine.

Macomics Ltd, a leader in macrophage drug discovery, announces that it has entered into a worldwide drug discovery collaboration agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan; President and CEO: Gyo Sagara; “Ono”) to develop new immuno-oncology antibody drugs against a novel macrophage target of interest in cancer.

Under the terms of the agreement, Macomics will identify and characterise antibody candidates against the novel target of interest using its ENIGMACTM macrophage drug discovery platform. Ono will have an exclusive option to license global rights to the candidates for further development and commercialization. Macomics will receive an up-front payment, R&D funding, and success-based milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties based on global net sales.

Macomics is exploiting the potential of macrophage-based approaches to develop novel precision medicines to target disease specific macrophage biology. Macomics’ ENIGMAC macrophage drug discovery platform integrates large volume human data sets, custom cell models, and proprietary human macrophage genome editing capability to discover novel targets and unlock disease specific target biology. Macrophages (TAMs) are often the most abundant immune cell many types of cancer and modulating TAMs can enhance the body’s ability to fight cancer.

Toichi Takino, Senior Executive Officer / Executive Director, Discovery & Research of Ono said:

“Targeting macrophages in immune-oncology is emerging as an exciting area with significant opportunity to deliver novel therapeutics to improve cancer outcomes and to change the lives of patients with cancer. Macomics has demonstrated the power of its macrophage platform and drug discovery approach and we are delighted to partner with them on taking this novel target discovery program forwards.”

Stephen Myatt, CEO of Macomics said:

“This global collaboration with Ono is testament to our strong program portfolio, and the unique enablement offered by our ENIGMAC discovery platform, and our world class R&D team. Ono is a leader in immuno-oncology and we are delighted to have a partner in Ono who brings the complementary skills necessary to succeed in this therapeutic area.”

The founding scientists behind Edinburgh-based Macomics, Dr Luca Cassetta and Professor Jeff Pollard who have led the field in understanding the role of macrophages in development, tissue repair and cancer, have authored a major Perspectives review in Nature Reviews Cancer¹, detailing the seminal discoveries in macrophage biology over the past 50 years revealing exciting future prospects for developing precision medicines to modulate macrophages for the treatment of cancer by targeting tumour associated macrophage (TAMs) in the tumour microenvironment (TME).

The TME is now recognized to be inundated with immune cells, of which TAMs are often the most abundant by cell number. TAMs were initially thought to be antitumoral, although some experiments suggested that they could enhance tumour cell growth. However, with the advent of new technologies, sophisticated mouse models and human clinical sample analysis, the roles of TAMs were revealed.

Clinical correlative data and a plethora of preclinical studies of cancers have now shown that both tumour-associated and metastasis-associated macrophages play an important role in promoting cancer.

Scientists are still in the process of understanding TAMs heterogeneity including the cellular interactions during tumour progression and in response to therapy, but Improved intravital imaging (IVI) capabilities in preclinical models and newer technologies such as spatial transcriptomics and multicolour multiplex immunofluorescence and mass spectrometry are enabling mapping at single-cell resolution in the TME cellular landscape.

As summarized in the review, myeloid targeting strategies are now in the clinic and show early signs of efficacy as mono and combination therapies.

“We are entering a golden era of discoveries, resulting in the manipulation of the TME, and in particular TAM biology, that will allow immunotherapy to be widely applicable to many if not all cancers”, conclude Dr Cassetta and Prof. Pollard, adding “Recent technological advances have enabled the decoding of TAM complexity in human tumours; such important steps will allow a more precise TAM targeting in the clinic. The next big challenge will be to apply these technologies on clinical samples coming from patients who failed previous cancer therapies to assess TAM evolution during cancer treatment resistance.”

Macomics is an immuno-oncology company set up to take forward these learnings and opportunities.

Prof. Pollard is a Principal Investigator at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health (MRC-CRH), University of Edinburgh. Formerly its Director, he has been investigating the roles of macrophages in development, tissue repair and cancer for almost 30 years. His group was the first to show that tumour-associated macrophages promote the progression of tumors to metastasis in part, through the establishment of a suppressive immune microenvironment that supports tumor cell survival. He is co-founder of and remains advisor to Macomics. Dr Cassetta previously worked with Prof. Pollard and is now VP immunology at Macomics, having left his role at the University of Edinburgh to join the company full time.

Modulating TAMs can alter the tumour microenvironment enhancing the body’s ability to fight cancer.  The tumour microenvironment changes macrophage behaviour, and Macomics is exploiting disease-specific TAM biology to selectively target these immunosuppressive cells.

It has proprietary cell models and approaches for the genetic manipulation of macrophages that, when combined with novel cell functional assays and informatics, enables new target opportunities for specific therapeutic hypotheses to be revealed.

Macomics portfolio is diversified by the mechanism of action and is focussed on multi-hit biological hypothesis, modulating both TAM biology directly and the activity of the broader immune system, to re-invigorate immune responses against cancer cells. It will continue to expand its portfolio of validated targets in diseases where macrophages play a central role in aetiology, response to therapy, and patient outcomes.

Dr Steve Myatt, Macomics CEO said

“We have built a world-class team and made great progress based on the discoveries by our pre-eminent scientists in the field of macrophage biology whose unparalleled expertise guides our mission to discover new therapies that improve the long-term outcome for cancer patients. We are passionate about the therapeutic potential of targeting macrophages for the treatment of cancer. Our vision is to develop a new approach to targeting the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment, that exploits disease-specific macrophage biology to harness the power of the entire immune system. Our diversified portfolio of antibody programs combined with our proprietary target identification approach and world-class team uniquely positions us to deliver on this vision.”

1. Cassetta, L., Pollard, J.W. A timeline of tumour-associated macrophage biology. Nat Rev Cancer(2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-022-00547-1

Macomics Ltd, a biotech company with world-leading expertise in macrophage biology, congratulates its co-founder Prof. Jeffery Pollard PhD on his election to the Academia Europaea (the European Academy, AE).

Prof. Pollard will be welcomed as a new at a ceremony during the 33rd Annual Conference of Academia Europaea, Building Bridges 2022, in Barcelona 27-27 October.

The prestigious Academia Europaea has recognized Prof. Pollard for his visionary and pioneering work in the field of macrophage biology. He co-founded Macomics with Dr Luca Cassetta, as a spin-out from Edinburgh University to develop precision medicines to modulate macrophages for the treatment of cancer. He now provides expert consultancy to the company, is a board member and is also Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board, whilst Dr Cassetta has joined full-time as VP of Immunology.

Founded in 1988, Academia Europaea members include leading experts from the physical sciences and technology, biological sciences and medicine, mathematics, the letters and humanities, social and cognitive sciences, economics and the law. Its 4,500 members are drawn from across Europe as well as European scholars who are resident in other regions of the world. Current members include seventy-two Nobel Laureates, several of whom were elected to the Academia before they received the prize.

Membership is highly selected, through peer nomination, scrutiny, and confirmation as to the scholarship and eminence of the individual in their chosen field. The election is confirmed by the Council of the Academia. Prof. Pollard was elected based on his contribution to the foundation of knowledge on the role of macrophages in disease. He is a Member of the section Clinical & Veterinary Science.

Professor Pollard is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biologists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scottish academy) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (British academy). He has received several awards most notably the American Cancer Society “Medal of Honour for Basic Science Research” for his studies in tumour immunology (2010), Rothschild Yvette–Meynet Curie award (2009), the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2013 – 2018) and the Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (2013 – 2021). For many years he has been on the annual Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate, being in the top 0.001% and thus one of the most cited researchers in science.

Commenting on the achievement, Dr Steve Myatt, CEO of Macomics said

“I congratulate Jeff on being elected as a Member of Academia Europaea. It reflects the ground-breaking nature of his research over more than 30 years in the macrophage field, on which Macomics is built. Our vision is to deliver benefits to patients from this research and to continue to develop our position as a leading biotechnology company pioneering macrophage-based therapies for the treatment of cancer.”

Macomics is progressing a diversified portfolio of therapies targeting disease-specific tumour-associated macrophages (‘TAMs’) towards the clinic. Its target discovery platform enables the identification and validation of novel macrophage therapeutic targets and is based on its deep understanding of macrophage biology.