Campus Life July 28, 2026
U of U startup builds next-gen CAR-T for multiple cancers
Technology Licensing Office -
CAR-T therapy equips a patient’s immune cells to recognize and attack cancer, but those cells can become exhausted, die too quickly or cause serious side effects. University of Utah spinout NanoKar Therapeutics is developing a way to fine-tune existing CAR-T treatments so the cells can last longer and work more effectively. The company hopes its technology can improve a wide range of therapies being developed for blood cancers and solid tumors.
Where current CAR-T treatments fall short
CAR-T therapy begins by collecting a patient’s T cells, a type of immune cell, and engineering them to recognize a specific marker on cancer cells. The modified cells are then returned to the patient, where they seek out and attack the cancer.
Although CAR-T therapies can be powerful, the engineered cells do not always remain effective for long. They can become overactive, causing them to wear out or die too soon. That overactivation can also trigger a powerful immune response that leads to serious side effects.
CAR-T therapies have been most successful against certain blood cancers. Solid tumors present additional challenges because engineered immune cells may have difficulty entering the tumor and remaining active within the tumor environment.
Finding ways to optimize the system
NanoKar is developing a technology designed to address these challenges by adjusting the signals inside CAR-T cells that control how strongly they respond. By fine-tuning those signals, the company aims to help the cells remain active longer without becoming dangerously overactivated.
The approach focuses on structures inside immune cells known as immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs, or ITAMs, which help control how strongly the cells respond. In most existing CAR-T therapies, these motifs are part of a commonly used signaling component called the CD3 zeta chain. NanoKar is developing alternative ITAM configurations within that component, with the goal of giving researchers greater control over the strength and duration of a CAR-T cell’s activity.
The company’s early research has shown encouraging results, suggesting the technology may produce CAR-T cells with greater persistence, reduced signs of exhaustion and lower toxicity. NanoKar is also evaluating whether the platform can improve CAR-T performance against solid tumors, one of the field’s most significant unmet needs.
NanoKar is at the preclinical stage of research, having performed in vivo and in vitro research on cancer cells. It is conducting pre-IND work to file an Investigational New Drug Application and proceed to Phase I trials.
A technology that could strengthen many CAR-T therapies
Rather than creating a single cancer therapy, NanoKar is developing a platform that can integrate with existing CAR-T programs.
The company plans to strategically partner with or license its technology to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies already developing CAR-based therapies, allowing partners to evaluate different NanoKar ITAM configurations to identify the optimal design for their specific cancer target.
Because the platform is intended to complement—not replace—existing CAR-T technologies, NanoKar views established CAR-T developers as strategic partners rather than competitors.
For pharmaceutical companies, the technology could improve treatment efficacy and safety, generate additional intellectual property opportunities and potentially expand CAR-T therapies into new cancer indications.
Turning laboratory research into a startup
NanoKar grew from research led by University of Utah pathology professor Dr. Matthew Bettini. Early support from the Department of Pathology helped his lab generate the data needed to pursue additional funding, including a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
As the research progressed, Bettini realized its potential extended well beyond a single cancer target.
“We knew that this research had much broader potential,” Bettini said. “If this could work with other tumor antigens and specificities, then it could be widely applied to the field of cancer research.”
The company’s long-term vision is to help make CAR-based therapies safer, more durable and more clinically effective by enabling engineered immune cells to persist longer and continue attacking cancer. If successful across multiple CAR-T platforms, the technology could expand access to these lifesaving therapies for many more patients.
“These companies are individually making their products more efficacious,” Bettini said. “At the end of the day, we would like to see this technology help cure cancer patients and get survival as high as possible across all the applications.”
Moving from research to commercialization
As a University of Utah researcher, Bettini encountered new challenges when he began turning the technology into a company.
“As a bench scientist, all you’re thinking about is basic research and the next experiment,” Bettini said. “You’re not trained at all to think like a businessperson.”
The University of Utah’s Technology Licensing Office helped Bettini protect the intellectual property, understand the licensing process and identify resources for moving the technology toward the market. He said contacting the office early was critical to making the research more translational.
Through that work, Bettini connected with Craig Mosman, who joined as CEO of NanoKar. Together, they have refined the company’s commercialization strategy and expanded opportunities to validate the platform across multiple cancer types.
“We believe that the most effective way to get this treatment to the most patients in the shortest period of time is to strategically partner with one or more pharmaceutical companies that already have CAR-T programs,” Mosman said.
NanoKar is now raising funding to hire additional employees, accelerate its research, develop new intellectual property and prepare for studies needed before the technology could advance toward human clinical trials. The team’s next goal is to demonstrate that the approach can improve multiple CAR-based therapies, helping position the technology for partnerships that could ultimately bring it to patients.
