Revolutionizing Therapeutics
By Tim Stobierski
May 2024
Cell replacement therapy (CRT) is one of the most promising areas of biotech under exploration today. It involves implanting living cells — capable of producing therapeutics — directly within a patient’s body to treat chronic and often life-threatening conditions.
The bad news? In patients with healthy immune systems, the body recognizes these cells as foreign bodies and attacks them, reducing their efficacy. In order for CRT to work, patients typically take immunosuppressants that dampen this response.
Crystal Nyitray wanted to create an encapsulation device capable of protecting these implanted cells within the human body, without the need for conventional immunosuppression. The company she founded, Encellin, calls the resulting technology Encapsulated Cell Replacement Therapy — or EnCRT, for short.
“What’s most exciting about what we’re doing is that it’s just very different,” says Crystal. “It’s fundamentally different from most medications, most therapeutics, most drugs and, frankly, even a lot of cell therapy.”
Encellin is initially focused on leveraging EnCRT to treat endocrine disorders — starting with Type 1 diabetes — which typically require lifelong treatment, making them excellent candidates for cell therapy. While the company has spent the past few years developing the technology and getting the science right, 2024 will mark the start of its first-in-human trials.
"Our business strategy is about getting lifesaving medicines to patients as quickly and as safely as possible."
According to Crystal, the initial trial is focused on demonstrating that EnCRT can be safely implanted in humans without triggering cell engraftment, an immune response that would essentially render the therapy useless. They expect to have early intervention data by the end of this year or early 2025. “As an entrepreneur, how you describe your company matters,” says Crystal. “To have that short description of Encellin change — from a ‘preclinical biotech company’ to a ‘clinical stage biotech company’ — it feels like we’ve leveled up.” Crystal is also excited about the fact that Encellin is expanding the technology to address a second indication, which the company expects to disclose in mid-2024. “Ultimately, what we have developed is a platform,” she says. “We want to show that we can leverage EnCRT not just to address Type 1 diabetes, but other diseases, as well.” When asked about the future of the company, and the possibility that Encellin might one day license its technology to other pharmaceutical companies, Crystal is noncommittal. “Our business strategy is not a licensing strategy, nor an in-house strategy,” she says. “Our business strategy is about getting lifesaving medicines to patients as quickly and as safely as possible. If it makes sense to develop everything in-house, that’s what we’ll do. If we see a different indication, where it makes sense to license the technology to a partner, we’re comfortable with that, too.”