Outpace Bio

Outpace Bio is a Seattle-based biotech company using protein design and cell engineering to create advanced cell therapies with curative potential for solid tumors. The company's core technology involves designing proteins from scratch to overcome barriers to efficacy and safety, enabling engineered cells to make better decisions inside patients. Outpace's suite of technologies drives persistent activity (OutLast), recruits a productive immune response in the tumor microenvironment (OutSmart), and achieves potency (OutSpacers), specificity (Co-LOCKR), and safety (EGFRopt).

In April 2024, Outpace presented data on its lead program OPB-101, a mesothelin-specific CAR T cell therapeutic candidate engineered for unprecedented efficacy against solid tumors. OPB-101 demonstrated complete elimination of solid tumors in stringent mouse models at very low treatment doses, as low as 50,000 cells. It incorporates multiple Outpace technologies, including an optimized mesothelin-directed CAR, a regulated promoter to resist T cell exhaustion, a CD8α-targeted designed IL-2 cytokine, and an EGFR-based safety switch. OPB-101 is on track for an IND submission in Q4 2024.

In May 2023, Outpace opened a new 23,000-square-foot facility in Seattle's Dexter Yard biotech hub, enabling expanded research and development efforts. As of August 2023, the company had grown to 53 employees.

Key customers and partnerships

In May 2023, Outpace announced collaborations with David Baker, director of the University of Washington Medicine Institute for Protein Design, and Stan Riddell, an endowed chair in immunotherapy at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. These partnerships aim to advance Outpace's protein design capabilities and translational models for evaluating its engineered cell therapies.

Outpace is also collaborating with Lyell Immunopharma on a tumor-restricted IL-12 technology designed to deliver localized IL-12 activity in the tumor microenvironment, potentially enhancing the efficacy of T cell therapies.