• Collaboration Will Evaluate Charge-altering Releasable Transporter System for mRNA Delivery to T Cells
• Research Will Be Led by Stanford Researchers Robert Waymouth, Ph.D., Paul Wender, Ph.D. and Ronald Levy, M.D.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer, today announced that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement with Stanford University to investigate a novel nucleic acid delivery system developed by Stanford researchers to more effectively, safely and flexibly deliver intracellular RNA or DNA into lymphocytes, including T cells. Allogene intends to explore the use of this technology to advance the field of AlloCAR T therapy.

The Charge-altering Releasable Transporter system developed by Stanford professors and described in foundational research¹²³⁴, is designed to resolve several challenges associated with existing physical, viral and nanoparticle nucleic acid delivery methods. During the research collaboration, Stanford researchers will design and optimize tools and reagents for ex vivo cell engineering for Allogene to evaluate in terms of efficiency, cell viability, cytotoxicity and functional cell performance.

“Collaborations between academia and industry are critical to the acceleration and success of scientific innovations, and we are excited to evaluate this potentially transformative technology to create the next generation of cell manufacturing,” said David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene. “We believe the combination of Allogene’s strong technical expertise in designing AlloCAR T therapies combined with Stanford’s gene delivery technology could lead to the creation of new therapies that have the potential to make a meaningful difference in the lives of many patients.”

Leading the research are Robert Waymouth, Ph.D., Robert Eckles Swain Professor in Chemistry at the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering; Paul Wender, Ph.D., Francis W. Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry at the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology; and Ronald Levy, M.D., Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor at Stanford School of Medicine and Professor of Medicine.

About Allogene Therapeutics
Allogene Therapeutics, with headquarters in South San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer. Led by a world-class management team with significant experience in cell therapy, Allogene is developing a pipeline of “off-the-shelf” CAR T cell therapy candidates with the goal of delivering readily available cell therapy on-demand, more reliably, and at greater scale to more patients. For more information, please visit www.allogene.com, and follow @AllogeneTx on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The press release may, in some cases, use terms such as "predicts," "believes," "potential," "proposed," "continue," "estimates," "anticipates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "may," "could," "might," "will," "should" or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, among other things: the ability to progress the research collaboration and investigate a novel nucleic acid delivery system, the ability to create new therapies and license the novel nucleic acid delivery system or related technology from Stanford University, and the potential benefits of the novel nucleic acid delivery system and AlloCAR T therapy. Various factors may cause differences between Allogene’s expectations and actual results as discussed in greater detail in Allogene’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including without limitation in its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019. Any forward-looking statements that are made in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Allogene assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

Allogene Media/Investor Contact:
Christine Cassiano
Chief Communications Officer
(714) 552-0326
Christine.Cassiano@allogene.com

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¹Colin J. McKinlay, Jessica R. Vargas, Timothy R. Blake, Jonathan W. Hardy, Masamitsu Kanada, Christopher H. Contag, Paul A. Wender*, and Robert M. Waymouth* “Charge-altering releasable transporters (CARTs) for the delivery and release of messenger RNA in living animals” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2017 E448-456, doi/10.1073/pnas.1614193114.

²Colin J. McKinlay, Nancy L. Benner, Ole A. Haabeth, Robert M. Waymouth, and Paul A. Wender “Enhanced mRNA delivery into lymphocytes enabled by lipid-varied libraries of charge-altering releasable transporters” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2018, 115 (26), E5859-E5866 doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805358115

³ Ole A. W. Haabeth, Timothy R. Blake, Colin J. McKinlay, Robert M. Waymouth, Paul A. Wender, Ronald Levy “mRNA Vaccination with Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters elicit human T cell responses, and Cures Established Tumors in mice” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2018 115 (39), E9153-E9161 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1810002115

⁴ Ole A. W. Haabeth, Timothy R. Blake, Colin J. McKinlay, Anders Tveita, Robert M. Waymouth, Paul A. Wender, Ronald Levy “Local OX40L, CD80, and CD86 mRNA delivery kindles global anti-cancer immunity” Cancer Research 2019, vol 79 (7), 1624-1634. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-2867; PubMed 30692215

Source: Allogene Therapeutics, Inc.