Martin Pule

Degrees / Professional qualifications

• 2008 Certificate of Specialist Training in Haematology, RCPI 
• 2007 Fellow Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath)
• 1999 US Medical Licensing Examinations Completed 0-518-972-5 
• 1997 Member Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (MRCP)  
• 1995 Medicine – University College Dublin, MB Bch BAO (Honors) 

Present and previous positions with dates

• Jan 2011 – Current Senior Lecturer in Haematology University College London and Director - UCL Cancer Institute Chimeric Antigen Receptor Programme 
• Jan 2015 – Current Chief Scientific Officer, Autolus Ltd
• Jan 2007 – Dec 2010 MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow, University College London  
• June 2005 – December 2006 Clinical Lecturer in Haematology University College London 
• August 2001- May 2005 Traveling Fulbright Scholar and Research Fellow 
• Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston 
• July 1998 – June 2001 Haematology Specialist Training, Dublin 

Awards and invited talks

•  UCL Business award 2015 for the founding of Autolus Ltd 
• BBSRC Innovator of the year 2016, Most promising Innovator 
• Since 2015 I have given >50 invited talks including at ASGCT, Cellicon Valley, EHA and Keystone.  

Relevant Current and Recent Research Grants

I have only listed grants I am PI of or else very substantial awards: 

• Moulton Fund: multi-edited CD30 CAR T-cell therapy for r/r Hodgkins Lymphoma. Principle Investigator 2020-2024. Value £1.4M 
• Moulton Fund: EGFRvIII CAR T-cell therapy for glioblastoma Multiforme. Co-Investigator. 2020-2024. Value £1.3M 
• MRC Project grant “CD21 CAR T-cell therapy for T-ALL”. Principle investigator 2019-2022. Value £680k. 
• MRC DPFS grant “A protein-based method for allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy”. Principle investigator 2019-2024. Value £2.2M 
• Wellcome Trust. Health Innovation Fund. £2.7M. CAR T-cell therapy of CNS Lymphoma. Principle Investigators. Starting Sept 2016, 4 years. 
• EU 20/20 scheme. CARAT consortium. Partner. EURO 1M. Next generation CAR T-cell engineering. Started Sept 2016. 5 years. 
• NIHR i4i. Phase I/II study of CAR19 in relapsed/refractory ALL. Principle Investigator. £3.9M. 3.5 years starting Sept. 2015 
• Innovate UK / BBSRC Consortium. Coordinator. “Large-scale production of lentiviral vectors” £1.8M. 3 years starting Aug 2015 
• CRUK Project grant “EGFRvIII targeting of glioma by CAR T-cells”. £180,000 over 3 years starting Sept. 2015. 
• CRUK Project grant “Targeting CD160 for immunotherapy of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia”. Pule[PI], £160,000 over 2 years. 
• EU FP7 ATECT “Advanced T-cell Engineering” I am coordinator. EU 6 million; 3 million to UCL.  

Patents Filed / Commercialization 

I have filed > 50 patents. In 2020, a review of the CAR T patent landscape, Nature Biotechnology listed me as the #2 global inventor in CAR T (Lyu et al). In 2021, a review by the EPO listed me as the #1 inventor of CAR T cell patents at the EPO. Patents I have filed teach amongst many inventions new suicide genes (WO2013153391 and WO2017137759). new receptor types (WO2015052536, WO2016139487), a strategy to target T cell Lymphomas (WO2015132598) and ways of CAR targeting multiple antigens simultaneously (WO2016174407). 

Designs in first-in-man studies 

I have designed numerous T cell engineering components which have been tested in human subjects

Public engagement 

I collaborated with the animator Greg Foot to create a Ted Ed video, "How to bio hack your T cells to fight cancer". I collaborated with BBC2 to create a documentary detailing CAR T first-in-man clinical study. This won the 2020 Grierson Award. It is available via the director on Vimeo.

Engagement with Industry and Entrepreneurship 

In 2007, I established a collaboration with the genome editing company Cellectis. With their CSO, Andy Scharenberg, we conceived the idea of TAL mediated TCR and CD52 ko, allowing the use of Campath to prevent CAR T rejection. The first-in-man test was at UCL (PMID: 28123068). The cassette I developed for this (RQR8/4G7-41BB-Z) is currently in study by Cellectis in B-ALL (NCT02808442), and in DLBCL by Allogene (NCT03939026). 

In 2015, I founded Autolus Ltd a CAR T cell company based in London. Autolus has since floated on the Nasdaq, raised >$500M and currently employs over 300 people and opened 5 clinical studies. Autolus has licensed CAT19-41BB-z, the fast off-rate CD19 CAR I developed at UCL and this is now in a phase Ib/II registration study (NCT04404660). 

I am on the scientific advisory board of Mana Therapeutics, a company developing neo TIL therapy for acute myeloid leukemia. I am also on the scientific advisory board of Virocell Therapeutics. 

Selected Publications

1. Roddie C, Dias J, O'Reilly MA ... Pule MA, Peggs KS. Durable Responses and Low Toxicity After Fast Off-Rate CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T Therapy in Adults With Relapsed or Refractory B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. J Clin Oncol. 2021 Oct 20;39(30): 3352-3363.
2. Wawrzyniecka PA, Ibrahim L, Gritti G, Pule MA, Maciocia PM. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells for gamma-delta T cell malignancies. Leukemia. 2022 Feb;36(2):577-579.
3. Biasco L, Izotova N, Rivat C ... Pule M, Thrasher AJ, Amrolia PJ. Clonal expansion of T memory stem cells determines early anti-leukemic responses and long-term CAR T cell persistence in patients. Nat Cancer. 2021 Jun;2(6): 629-642.
4. Agliardi G, Liuzzi AR, Hotblack A ... Pule MA, Tugues S, Straathof K, Becher B. Intratumoral IL-12 delivery empowers CAR-T cell immunotherapy in a pre-clinical model of glioblastoma. Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 19;12(1): 444.
5. Straathof K, Flutter B, Wallace R ... Pule M, Anderson J. Antitumor activity without on-target off-tumor toxicity of GD2-chimeric antigen receptor T cells in patients with neuroblastoma. Sci Transl Med. 2020 Nov 25;12(571): eabd6169.
6. EGhorashian S, Kramer AM, Onuoha S ... Pule MA, Amrolia PJ. Enhanced CAR T cell expansion and prolonged persistence in pediatric patients with ALL treated with a low-affinity CD19 CAR. Nat Med. 2019 Sep;25(9): 1408-1414.
7. Stavrou M, Philip B, Traynor-White C ... Pule M. A Rapamycin-Activated Caspase 9-Based Suicide Gene. Mol Ther. 2018 May 2;26(5): 1266-1276.
8. Lee L, Draper B, Chaplin N ... Yong K, Pule M. An APRIL-based chimeric antigen receptor for dual targeting of BCMA and TACI in multiple myeloma. Blood. 2018 Feb 15;131(7): 746-758.
9. Maciocia PM, Wawrzyniecka PA, Philip B ... Pule MA. Targeting the T cell receptor β-chain constant region for immunotherapy of T cell malignancies. Nat Med. 2017 Dec;23(12): 1416-1423.
10. Qasim W, Zhan H, Samarasinghe S ... Pule M, Veys P. Molecular remission of infant B-ALL after infusion of universal TALEN gene-edited CAR T cells. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Jan 25;9(374):eaaj2013. Erratum in: Sci Transl Med. 2017 Feb 15;9(377): aam9292.
11. Mock U, Nickolay L, Philip B ... Pule M, Thrasher AJ, Qasim W. Automated manufacturing of chimeric antigen receptor T cells for adoptive immunotherapy using CliniMACS prodigy. Cytotherapy. 2016 Aug;18(8): 1002-1011.
12. Poirot L, Philip B, Schiffer-Mannioui C ... Peggs K, Pule M, Scharenberg AM, Smith J. Multiplex Genome-Edited T-cell Manufacturing Platform for "Off-the-Shelf" Adoptive T-cell Immunotherapies. Cancer Res. 2015 Sep 15;75(18): 3853-64.
13. Philip B, Kokalaki E, Mekkaoui L ... Peggs KS, Pule M. A highly compact epitope-based marker/suicide gene for easier and safer T-cell therapy. Blood. 2014 Aug 21;124(8): 1277-87.
14. Rossig C, Pule M, Altvater B, et al. Vaccination to improve the persistence of CD19CAR gene-modified T cells in relapsed pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia. 2017 May;31(5): 1087-1095.
15. Menger L, Sledzinska A, Bergerhoff K ... Pule M, Hererro J, Peggs KS, Quezada SA. TALEN-Mediated Inactivation of PD-1 in Tumor-Reactive Lymphocytes Promotes Intratumoral T-cell Persistence and Rejection of Established Tumors. Cancer Res. 2016 Apr 15;76(8):2087-93. Erratum in: Cancer Res. 2016 Oct 15;76(20):6130; Cancer Res. 2017 Jun 15;77(12):3379.