Nona Biosciences has announced a multi-target antibody discovery collaboration with Link Cell Therapies aimed at accelerating the development of next-generation CAR-T cell therapies.

Under the collaboration, the partners will leverage Nona’s proprietary fully human HCAb Harbour Mice platform alongside its direct CAR-function-based HCAb library screening technology, NonaCarFx, to generate novel antibody candidates for CAR-T cell therapy applications.

Fully human Heavy chain-only Antibodies (HCAbs) produced using Nona’s HCAb Harbour Mice platform offer a highly suitable modality for CAR-based cell therapies. Compared with traditional antibody formats, fully human HCAbs have the potential to significantly reduce immunogenicity. Their compact size, simplified molecular structure and optimised binding properties provide greater flexibility in CAR design, making them particularly attractive for advanced cell therapy development.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Di Hong, Chief Executive Officer of Nona Biosciences, said, “The partnership with Link Cell Therapies will help accelerate the discovery of differentiated CAR-T candidates. Combining Nona’s HCAb Harbour Mice and NonaCarFx platforms with Link Cell Therapies’ expertise in cell therapy could support the development of novel treatments for both solid tumours and hematologic malignancies.”

Dr Mark Wallet, Chief Science Officer of Link Cell Therapies, highlighted the importance of high-quality antibody domains in CAR-T design. 

He noted that while Link’s proprietary LINK CAR signalling technology underpins its logic-gated approach to precisely distinguish cancer cells from healthy tissue, effective CAR-T therapies also depend on robust antibody components. “Collaboration with Nona Biosciences will enable the discovery of novel fully human HCAbs to pair with LINK CAR constructs,” he added. 

In the rapidly evolving cell therapy landscape, fully human HCAbs are emerging as a promising approach to enable the next wave of therapeutic innovation, especially in addressing complex cancer indications.