We Are Cortex | Lu Alleruzzo

When he speaks about the company he cofounded, Lu Alleruzzo’s calm, measured tone seems to underplay the enormous promise of his team’s work: “Immunophotonics is developing a new drug to keep cancer from coming back.”

It’s that simple. And that difficult. Alleruzzo, Co-funder and Board Member, has traveled a long road from conversations at the University of Missouri to a single desk to a lab at Cortex-based BioGenerator. It’s a trip that includes a 2021 patent awarded to its keystone drug product, IP-001.

Here’s how it works, as Alleruzzo explains it: During cancer treatment, about half of patients get dosed with medications that destroy tumors. The bad news is that some of those cancer cells continue to drift around the patient’s body, ready to strike again. The good news? The process to destroy the tumor releases “blueprint” information about the cancer cells. And that’s where Immunophotonics’ patented drug comes in.

When it’s injected into a patient, the drug “binds to the cancer's blueprint. It trains the patient's immune system to say, ‘Aha! Now I know what the enemy looks like,’” Alleruzzo said. “The body's own immune system is programmed to seek out those remaining cancer cells to eliminate them.”

He maintains his customary low-key attitude when he looks six months ahead to what may be a final clinical trial on the way to FDA approval for his company’s drug.

“On one hand I'm excited and energized,” Alleruzzo said. “On the other hand, I want to make sure nothing goes wrong. Because at the end of the day, these are patient lives.”

What he’s not shy about sharing is also simple: “The relationships we've created in St. Louis and Cortex are the foundation to Immunophotonic’s success.”

“St. Louis is big enough and small enough,” he said. “It's big enough to have what you need, the people to give you the right advice, to open doors. But it's also small enough to get in front of those people very quickly and keep your business moving.”

From where he sits, Alleruzzo said, the word “Cortex” has become enough of a brand name in the life sciences and biotech community that everyone knows what it means.

“It entails being a part of a community that has the right people at the table for the right reasons to drive innovation,” he said. “Cortex is a community that wants you to be here and wants to work together to achieve things we know we can't do ourselves.”

We Are Cortex celebrates the individuals who power our vibrant district. Join us on Tuesday, October 28, for #WeAreCortex – an inspiring and interactive event highlighting the thinkers, builders, creators, and doers who are shaping the future of St. Louis and beyond. Click here to learn more and RSVP!