One Target. A Vision for Personalized Cancer Care.
OncoTAb's science is built around tMUC1, a tumor-associated form of MUC1. Our proprietary targeting technology provides a scientific foundation for approaches spanning cancer detection, molecular imaging, potential patient selection, and targeted treatment.
Explore Our Pipeline → View the Scientific FoundationFrom Detection to Treatment: A tMUC1-Targeting Vision
OncoTAb's tMUC1-targeting platform provides a scientific foundation for technologies spanning cancer detection, molecular imaging, patient selection, and targeted treatment.
Detect
Explore circulating tMUC1 as a blood-based biomarker associated with cancer.
Image
Visualize tMUC1-positive tumors using a radiolabeled tMUC1-targeting agent.
tMUC1-Targeting Platform
Proprietary targeting technology designed to recognize tumor-associated MUC1 and enable multiple diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
Minimal circulating antigen binding. Strong tumor cell-surface recognition.
Select
Use molecular imaging to identify tumors demonstrating targetable uptake and potentially inform patient selection.
Treat
Target tMUC1-expressing tumors through radiopharmaceutical therapy or T-cell engagement.
Overexpressed and aberrantly glycosylated on many epithelial cancers, including pancreatic cancer, while minimally present on most normal tissues.
A Distinctive Change Associated with Malignant Transformation
MUC1 is a glycoprotein normally expressed on the apical surface of epithelial cells. During malignant transformation, altered expression and glycosylation change the structure and distribution of MUC1, exposing tumor-associated epitopes.
This altered form, referred to as tumor-associated or transformed MUC1 (tMUC1), provides a target for technologies designed to distinguish malignant tissue from normal MUC1-expressing tissue.
OncoTAb's platform originated with TAB004, an antibody developed to recognize tMUC1. Importantly, the targeting technology exhibits minimal binding to circulating tMUC1 while strongly recognizing tMUC1 presented on the tumor cell surface, helping preserve availability for tumor targeting.
Published preclinical studies have evaluated TAB004-derived targeting approaches across blood-based detection, molecular imaging, targeted radiotherapy, and T-cell-directed therapy.
Detecting Circulating tMUC1
The earliest application of OncoTAb's tMUC1-targeting technology explored whether circulating tMUC1 could provide a blood-based signal associated with cancer.
Published research using TAB004 demonstrated the ability to detect tumor-associated MUC1 in blood and evaluated its potential to aid breast cancer detection in women with dense breast tissue.
This work established an important scientific principle for the OncoTAb platform: tMUC1 can potentially be interrogated beyond the tumor itself.
Visualizing tMUC1-Positive Tumors
If a targeting agent selectively accumulates at a tumor, radiolabeling that agent may make tumor uptake visible through molecular imaging.
Published preclinical work with 111In-labeled hTAB004, a full-length humanized antibody targeting tMUC1, demonstrated in vivo tumor targeting and evaluated an indium-111/actinium-225 theranostic strategy.
For OncoTAb, molecular imaging is more than a way to locate disease. It is a potential bridge between target biology and treatment—providing a non-invasive means to observe whether a tMUC1-targeting agent reaches and remains at a tumor.
See Tumor Targeting In Vivo →Using Imaging to Inform Patient Selection
Expression of a tumor target alone may not fully predict whether a systemically administered targeting agent will reach a patient's tumor at sufficient levels.
OncoTAb's radiotheranostic strategy is being developed around the potential use of molecular imaging to directly visualize tumor uptake of a tMUC1-targeting agent.
The long-term objective is to use imaging to help identify patients whose tumors demonstrate targetable uptake before administration of a therapeutic radiopharmaceutical.
This image-guided patient-selection concept is central to OncoTAb's vision of a personalized radiotheranostic approach for pancreatic cancer.
Two Therapeutic Strategies. One Tumor Target.
Once tMUC1 is identified as a therapeutic target, the same targeting principle can be applied to fundamentally different treatment modalities.
Targeted Radiotherapy
OncoTAb is developing a tMUC1-targeted radiopharmaceutical approach designed to carry therapeutic radiation to cancer. Published preclinical theranostic studies with hTAB004 established proof of concept for radiolabeled tMUC1 targeting.
OncoTAb is evaluating multiple tMUC1-targeting formats to identify an optimal radiopharmaceutical design for pancreatic cancer. Preclinical studies are comparing antibody and antibody-fragment configurations and evaluating molecular and radionuclide parameters that influence pharmacokinetics, tumor penetration, tumor retention, and normal-tissue exposure.
T-Cell Engagement
Published studies from the scientific foundation of the platform have demonstrated that tMUC1 can be targeted by engineered T cells in models of triple-negative breast cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and other solid tumors.
OncoTAb is applying the same target biology through MUCD3, a tMUC1 × CD3 bispecific T-cell engager designed to bring T cells into close proximity with tMUC1-expressing cancer cells.
View Our Therapeutic Pipeline →Building on a Body of tMUC1 Research
The scientific foundation of OncoTAb's platform spans cancer detection, molecular imaging, radiotheranostics, and immune-cell targeting.
Several foundational studies were conducted in breast cancer models and established the targeting characteristics and therapeutic potential of tMUC1-directed approaches. Subsequent work extended tMUC1-targeted immune strategies to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Today, OncoTAb's research and development activities are focused on pancreatic cancer, where the company is advancing its tMUC1-targeted radiotheranostic and MUCD3 bispecific T-cell engager programs.
Selected Scientific Publications
A tumor specific antibody to aid breast cancer screening in women with dense breast tissue. Roy LD, Dillon LM, Zhou R, Moore LJ, Livasy C, El-Khoury JM, Puri R, Mukherjee P. Genes & Cancer. 2017;8(3-4):536-549.
Phase II study of regorafenib in patients with previously treated advanced pancreatic cancer. Salmon JSS, Hwang JJJ, Robinson MMM, Symanowski JTT, Dillon LMM, Das Roy L, Beldner MAA, Preston K, Buige S, Nazemzadeh R, Mukherjee P, Farhangfar F, Kim ESS. JCO. 2017;35(15 suppl.).
Preclinical evaluation of an 111In/225Ac theranostic targeting transformed MUC1 for triple negative breast cancer. Kelly VJ, Wu ST, Gottumukkala V, Coelho R, Palmer K, Nair S, Erick T, Puri R, Ilovich O, Mukherjee P. Theranostics. 2020;10(15):6946-6958.
CAR T Cells Targeting the Tumor MUC1 Glycoprotein Reduce Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Growth. Zhou R, Yazdanifar M, Roy LD, Whilding LM, Gavrill A, Maher J, Mukherjee P. Frontiers in Immunology. 2019;10:1149.
Overcoming Immunological Resistance Enhances the Efficacy of a Novel anti-tMUC1 CAR T Cell Treatment Against Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Yazdanifar M, Zhou R, Grover P, Williams C, Bose M, Moore LJ, Wu ST, Chi R, Maher J, Dreau D, Mukherjee P. Cells. 2019;8(9):1070.
Mucin-1–Targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells Are Effective and Safe in Controlling Solid Tumors in Immunocompetent Host. Zhou R, Wu ST, Yazdanifar M, Williams C, Sanders A, Brouwer C, Maher J, Mukherjee P. Journal of Immunotherapy. 2024;47(3):103-115.