How Indapta Therapeutics Is Advancing Cancer Treatment with Natural Killer (NK) Cells
Dr. Mark Frohlich never set out to build a lean biotech startup. As a medical oncologist with decades of experience, he had already helped bring the first FDA-approved cancer immunotherapy to market. He’d worked with household names in the field—Juno, Dendreon, and others. But when he was introduced to a small company with a bold idea and an academic backstory from Michigan State University, something clicked.
“They were doing something different,” Frohlich said. “Most of the field was focused on T cells, which I had spent most of my career working with. But these researchers had found a way to unlock the power of NK cells—natural killer cells—with a safety profile that could open the door to broader access.”
A Scientific Breakthrough with MSU Roots
That company was Indapta Therapeutics, founded in 2016. Its scientific roots trace back to Dr. Sungjin Kim, a former MSU faculty member who discovered a highly potent subset of NK cells. Unlike CAR T-cell therapies, which can carry life-threatening complications and must be administered in specialized centers, Indapta’s NK cell platform held a radical promise: powerful immunotherapy that could be delivered safely in community oncology clinics—where most cancer patients actually receive care.
That potential for real-world reach is what drew Frohlich in. He joined the company as CEO in 2022, just as Indapta was preparing to enter clinical trials. Since then, the company has stayed deliberately small—just a dozen full-time employees and a network of expert consultants. “I’ve been part of companies that grew too fast and had to lay off good people,” he said. “We wanted to build something lean and flexible—focused on data, not hype.”
Breakthrough Data and Big Pharma Validation
And the early data has been promising. At the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer conference in November, Indapta shared results from its first-in-human trial: patients with multiple myeloma showed reductions of over 90% in tumor markers. The FDA granted the company Fast Track designation, and a partnership with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is now underway.
But it’s not just about cancer. Indapta has also received regulatory clearance to begin trials in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, targeting the misbehaving immune cells that drive chronic conditions. “We’re running three programs—oncology, autoimmunity, and AML—and we expect meaningful data this year,” Frohlich said.
Expanding the Reach of Immunotherapy
At its heart, Indapta is a story about translating deep academic science into something practical, scalable, and potentially life-changing. “When I went into oncology, I believed science would advance quickly—and that better treatments would follow,” Frohlich said. “Now we have the chance to bring that vision to more patients, in more places.”
Sometimes the future of medicine doesn’t start in a billion-dollar lab. Sometimes it starts with a smart idea, a small team, and a mission that’s too important to ignore.
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This article is based on an interview with Mark Frohlich, CEO of Indapta Therapeutics, on the MSU Research Foundation Podcast. You can listen to the full conversation on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.