ScaleReady awards a G-Rex® Grant to Moonlight Bio

ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ScaleReady, in collaboration with Wilson Wolf Manufacturing, Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) and CellReady, today announced that Moonlight Bio has been awarded a G-Rex® Grant. Moonlight Bio's G-Rex® Grant will expedite process development and IND-enabling studies of their lead CAR T cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumors.

"We are grateful to receive a G-Rex Grant to support the advancement of our lead CAR T asset into the clinic in a platform that is cost effective and scalable. This mechanism is a creative solution that provides access to expertise and a highly efficient manufacturing platform to biotechnology companies in a way that saves significant time and money," said Dr. Jordan Jarjour, Chief Scientific Officer at Moonlight Bio.

"I'm confident that Moonlight Bio will quickly find out that ScaleReady's expertise and the G-Rex Grant Program will preserve the two most precious commodities for any cell therapy entity, time and money," said John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Wolf Manufacturing and co-inventor of G-Rex.

Moonlight Bio's technology is based on a recent article published in Nature from the labs of two of their scientific co-founders, Dr. Kole Roybal and Dr. Jaehyuk Choi, that describes a unique approach to enhance engineered T cell therapies by co-opting mutations that naturally occur in T cell malignancies (PMID: 38326614). By screening dozens of mutations from T cell neoplasms, their results indicate that exploiting naturally occurring mutations represents a promising approach to discover how solutions derived from the selective process of cancer evolution can improve T cell therapies.

As part of the G-Rex Grant, ScaleReady will provide Moonlight Bio access to a commercially viable CAR T manufacturing platform. The G-Rex Grant may also be used to defray the cost associated with validation runs to support the IND-enabling studies for Moonlight's lead CAR T asset.  Additionally, Moonlight Bio will get access to Bio-Techne's new closed system reagent solutions, ProPak™ and GMP Cytokines for simplification of cytokine delivery. Finally, Moonlight Bio will have the option to receive a complimentary analysis of their master manufacturing batch records by CellReady, the world's first and only G-Rex centric contract development and manufacturing organization, to ensure commercial viability of the manufacturing process.

ScaleReady's G-Rex Grant Program is a $20M initiative to advance the state of cell and gene-modified cell therapy (CGT) development and manufacturing by awarding individual Grant Awards worth up to $300,000.  G-Rex Grant Recipients also gain access to exclusive support from ScaleReady's growing consortium of G-Rex Grant Partners who bring best-in-class tools and technologies as well as unparalleled knowledge and expertise in the areas of cGMP manufacturing, quality and regulatory affairs, CGT business operations, and more.

For more information about the G-Rex® Grant Program, please contact [email protected].

About ScaleReady
ScaleReady provides the field of cell and gene-modified cell therapy (CGT) with a G-Rex centric manufacturing platform that enables the world's most practical, flexible, scalable, and affordable CGT drug product development and manufacturing.

The G-Rex manufacturing platform is currently used by a rapidly growing list of over 800 organizations and is producing drug products for approximately 50% of CGT clinical trials as well as 5 commercially approved CGT drugs.

CGT entities relying on the breadth and scope of ScaleReady's expertise can expect to save years of time and millions of dollars on the path to CGT commercialization.

For more information about the ScaleReady G-Rex® Grant Program, please contact [email protected].

About Moonlight Bio, Inc.
Moonlight Bio, Inc. is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company based in Seattle, WA aiming to develop potency enhanced T cell therapies that provide new hope for patients suffering from cancer. Moonlight's core technologies were illuminated by nature itself and are designed to confront the disappointing reality that therapies for solid tumors are simply not potent enough to generate the deep and durable responses that patients urgently need. To learn more, connect with Moonlight Bio on LinkedIn and visit us at http://www.moonlightbio.us/.

About Wilson Wolf Manufacturing
Wilson Wolf (www.wilsonwolf.com) is dedicated to simplifying cell and gene-modified cell (CGT) therapy research, process development, and manufacturing.  This is being accomplished through its scalable G-Rex technology, which is used throughout the world in CGT applications ranging from basic research to commercial drug production.

Wilson Wolf's mission is to create hope for cancer patients, one G-Rex® device at a time.

About Bio-Techne Corporation
Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) is a global life sciences company providing innovative tools and bioactive reagents for the research and clinical diagnostic communities. Bio-Techne, in partnership with Wilson Wolf, is creating products such as media and cytokines that are specifically tailored to G-Rex® Bioreactors, including right-sized reagent quantities in containers that are tailored to high throughput closed-system manufacturing. For more information on Bio-Techne and its brands, please visit http://www.bio-techne.com or follow the Company on social media at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.

About Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH)
Contact: David Clair, Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Development
[email protected]
612-656-4416

About CellReady LLC
CellReady is the world's first and only G-Rex centric contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in G-Rex based cell and gene-modified cell therapy development and manufacturing. The company offers a wide range of services to support the development and commercialization of these therapies.

CellReady's mission is to create hope for cancer patients, one G-Rex® process at a time.

SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation