Most cancer immunotherapies try to help the immune system find and kill tumor cells.
Asgard Therapeutics is doing something different…they’re forcing the tumor cells to become dendritic cells…I’m sorry, huh!?
The Swedish biotech disclosed advanced preclinical data for AT-108 today, ahead of an oral presentation at ASGCT 2026.
The lead asset uses an adenoviral vector to deliver three reprogramming factors directly into a tumor:
i) PU.1 (SPI1) – pioneer TF, master myeloid regulator
ii) IRF8 — essential for cDC1 identity, drives cross-presentation programs
iii) BATF3 — stabilizes IRF8 via the +32kb enhancer
I could be wrong on the specifics of their actual lead program (I am piecing things together from their preclinical paper).
Nonetheless, the idea is this:
A specific combination of transcription factors and regulatory proteins can rewire the cancer cell’s gene expression program in such a way that the tumor cell literally stops being a tumor cell and instead becomes a type-1 conventional dendritic cell – the most potent antigen-presenting cell in the body…
Once reprogrammed, the cell starts presenting its own tumor antigens to the immune system. Personalized immunotherapy. From an off-the-shelf product.
If your reaction is “wait, what?”…yeah, same.
I’ve never seen anything like this in my LIFE.
AT-108 preclinical headline data (mouse models)
2× median survival
baseline
In combination with checkpoint blockade: complete tumor regressions and abscopal effects across multiple models.
The data Asgard’s bringing to ASGCT: AT-108 as a monotherapy doubled median survival in mouse models. Combined with checkpoint blockade, it produced complete tumor regressions and durable systemic immune responses including abscopal effects – meaning the immune system started attacking distant, metastatic, untreated tumors.
The mechanism worked across nearly 100 different tumor cell lines, including patient-derived samples.
The platform is called TrojanDC. Good name.
The company has raised €30 million in Series A funding from Novo Holdings, JJDC, RV Invest, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, and Industrifonden. They appointed Shane Olwill as CDO last March to run clinical development and AT-108 is in IND-enabling studies with a 2026 IND submission target.
Patent protection extends to 2038, which is unusually long for a preclinical asset.
The competitive question is pretty interesting here.
There are a lot of cancer vaccines and personalized neoantigen approaches in development. Most of them require sequencing the patient’s tumor, identifying mutated peptides, and manufacturing a custom product. The whole pipeline takes weeks per patient and costs a fortune.
AT-108 doesn’t need any of that. The tumor cells reveal their own antigens once they’ve been reprogrammed into dendritic cells. No sequencing. No custom manufacturing. One product, every patient.
If it actually works in humans like it does in mice, this is a category-redefining mechanism. Plenty of cancer biology has worked beautifully in C57BL/6 mice and gone nowhere in patients. We’ll know more when AT-108 enters the clinic next year.
The ASGCT presentation is the place to watch for the next quantitative readouts. Three reprogramming factors in an adenoviral vector.
Trojan horse, indeed.
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