New Repertoire Room Podcast Episode: Lucas Arruda (Curacell) on Tackling Cold Solid Tumors with TIL Therapy

We are excited to announce the release of Episode 4 of The Repertoire Room!

In this episode, our host Sander Wuyts sits down with Lucas Arruda, Chief Scientific Officer at CuraCell, a Swedish clinical-stage biotech company. CuraCell is taking on one of the biggest challenges in oncology: developing effective Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapies for "cold" solid tumors.

While TIL therapies have shown great success in "hot" tumors like melanoma, translating that success to indications with low T-cell infiltration—such as prostate and colorectal cancer—has been a major hurdle for the industry.

In this deep dive, Lucas shares how CuraCell is overcoming these barriers through innovative manufacturing processes and "unusual" clinical strategies.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Origin of Curacell: How an early adoption model in Germany allowed them to generate clinical data before starting formal trials.
• Manufacturing for "Cold" Tumors: How their proprietary "​CytoPLY^TM" platform generates large numbers of TILs from small, low-infiltration tumor samples.
• Rethinking Dosing: Why the "one-shot" approach used in melanoma doesn't work for cold tumors, and why multiple infusions are necessary.
• The Role of TCR Sequencing: How CuraCell uses TCR sequencing not just for research, but as a critical tool for regulatory compliance (proving product consistency) and immuno-monitoring (tracking patient response).

Lucas provides a fascinating look into the practical realities of building a biotech company and the scientific ingenuity required to make cell therapies work for patients with limited options.

Listen to the full episode here:

• YouTube
• Spotify

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