CuraDrone

CuraDrone is developing a first-of-its-kind intratumoral biological therapy: a new way to drive cancer drugs deep inside solid tumors and to wake the immune system.

We call it an immuno-active Bacterial-Drug Conjugate.

How it works: CuraDrone uses self-propelled, magnetically guided bacteria, our Bacterial Drones, to carry a cancer drug already used in approved treatments deep into hard-to-reach tumor regions, including the oxygen-poor core that ordinary injections and body-wide treatments miss. It changes where the cancer drug goes, not what kills the cancer cell, and it also triggers a local immune response inside the tumor. After an intratumoral injection, the Bacterial Drones are guided by our PolarTrak system, a 3D magnetic guidance device working far below MRI field levels, for about 30 minutes to actively distribute the drug across the tumor.

The problems we target: cancers that no longer respond to standard treatments, where tumors keep returning after chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery has failed or is no longer suitable; cancer drugs that cannot reach far enough, because even a direct injection spreads poorly through dense tissue and leaves the low-oxygen core, where resistant cells survive, untreated; and surgery or radiation that have reached their limits, since they can cause lasting damage to healthy tissue and function and often cannot be repeated.

The cancers we target first are accessible, high-unmet-need tumors suited to image-guided local treatment: head and neck (such as recurrent disease), pelvic (prostate, rectal, and vulvar), abdominal (such as locally advanced, non-operable pancreatic cancer), and cutaneous (skin) metastases.

CuraDrone is an investigational technology and is not yet approved for commercial use. Preclinical results support progression toward human clinical trials.