# Tikva Allocell

Source: https://onco.cc/companies/tikva-allocell/  
OnCo record `tikva-allocell` (Company). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Tikva Allocell builds ready-made CAR-T cells from healthy donors' T cells that already fight the common Epstein-Barr virus, with an added shield to stop the patient's immune system rejecting them. Its first product targets a protein found on many solid tumours and was preparing for its first trial in 2026.

## Summary

Tikva Allocell Pte Ltd is a late-preclinical Singapore company founded by Ivan Horak, with Baylor College of Medicine's Malcolm Brenner, Cliona Rooney and Helen Heslop as co-founders, and holds an exclusive licence to Baylor cell therapy technologies. Its platform starts from allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus-specific T cells (EBVSTs) from healthy donors, which carry low graft-versus-host risk without heavy gene editing, and arms them with an optimised SerpinB9 variant that inhibits granzyme B and caspases to resist host rejection and activation-induced cell death. It also lists an oncolytic virus strategy to modify the tumour microenvironment.

In July 2026 it closed a USD 8 million Series A led by Kantharos Capital to complete IND-enabling studies of its lead candidate TAVST01, which targets B7-H3, for clinical development in Singapore and the United States. The company names lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, gastric, triple-negative breast and paediatric cancers as settings where B7-H3 is overexpressed.

## Fields

- Kind: Company
- Last checked: 2026-10-29
- HQ: Singapore
- Type: cell-therapy
- Website: https://www.tikvaallocell.com/

## Notes

- Founding year not stated. The Series A is the first financing round on the company's press release list; earlier items there are a joint laboratory with A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Baylor licence. No cancer is linked because the lead product has not been assigned an indication.

## Sources

- Official website: https://www.tikvaallocell.com/
- Series A press release, July 2026: https://tikvaallocell.com/tikva-allocell-secures-8-million-series-a-financing-to-advance-engineered-off-the-shelf-cell-therapies-for-solid-tumors/

## Connected records

- fronts: [Cell Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/cell-therapy/), [Immunotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/immunotherapy/)
- technologies: [Allogeneic (off-the-shelf) cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/allogeneic-cell-therapy/), [CAR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-t/), [Virus-specific T cells](https://onco.cc/technologies/virus-specific-t-cells/)
- targets: [B7-H3](https://onco.cc/targets/b7h3/)

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