Virtual Proposers’ Day Announcement for ARPA-H Engineering Of Immune Cells Inside The Body (EMBODY)   2

Background
The ARPA-H Health Science Futures Office is sponsoring a Virtual Proposers’ Day for the planned proposer community in support of the Engineering Of Immune Cells Inside The Body (EMBODY) program. The virtual event will be held on April 18th, 2024, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM EDT. Registration closes on April 15th, 2024, at 12:00 PM EDT. The EMBODY program aims to catalyze the discovery and development of platforms and approaches for genetically engineering immune cells in vivo to treat devastating diseases like cancer, autoimmune disorders, chronic infections, etc.

Work Details
The EMBODY program will focus on developing cell-specific targeting platforms that can deliver genetic cargo in vivo to any desired immune cells with low off-target delivery. It also aims to optimize delivered genetic cargo to engineer immune cells for efficacy, safety, and expression control. The program will lower cost of goods, optimize manufacturability, ensure high product quality, and develop preclinical validation tools to enable quick and efficient translation of these approaches to clinic. The technical approach includes two technical areas (TA): TA1 focuses on platforms and approaches for in situ generation of genetically engineered immune cells while TA2 focuses on advanced production and validation of products developed using TA1 platforms. Performers must submit proposals covering both TAs and must be milestone-driven with Go/No-Go criteria to proceed to the next phase.

Period of Performance
The period of performance for Phase I is 24 months (Q1-Q8), Phase II is 12 months (Q9-Q12), Phase III is 24 months (Q13-Q20), and Phase IV is 12 months (Q21-Q24).

Place of Performance
The virtual event will be held online on April 18th, 2024.