A collaborative approach to establish the metabolites and safety of KT-001, advancing the commercialisation of an innovative new treatment for melanoma.

Melanoma skin cancer (MSC), is the 5th most common cancer in both men and women and kills more than 6 people each day in the UK alone. In the last decade, immunotherapies have shown great promise in treating this disease, but just over 50% of patients respond to this treatment. With a price-tag running at 100's of thousands of pounds for treatment per patient and a relatively high number of serious adverse effects, there is a clear unmet clinical need for new alternative treatments. KLAS therapeutics offers a unique solution to this, by providing an alternative therapy for MSC that can be used both independently and in combination with current treatments. Our technology works by utilising a process known as photodynamic therapy (PDT). Light is used to activate our compound, known as KLAS-PDT, which then converts otherwise harmless oxygen into a hyper reactive form that kills the cancer cells. By stimulating the body's immune system, KLAS-PDT can be combined with existing immunotherapies leading to significantly reduced cost and improved patient outcomes. This project seeks to establish the most appropriate 'off the shelf' light source for activation of our technology. In addition, working in a collaboration with medicines discovery catapult we will be applying the latest scientific methods to investigate how the compound breaks down, ensuring its safety can be guaranteed prior to human studies. This project will bring the technology closer to achieving actual patient benefit.