Project description
An off-the-shelf anti-cancer vaccine
Leveraging the immune system to fight cancer is a promising concept, but clinical success so far has been limited. The underlying reason is the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) that exhibit resistance and cause tumour recurrence. The EIC-funded MUTAVAC project proposes to generate a highly immunogenic version of IPVAC, an immunotherapy based on induced pluripotent stem cells generated with the antigens of CSCs. This cell-based therapy has the potential to serve in both prevention and therapy of cancers with CSC features. Importantly, this cell therapy can be scaled up for clinical use yet personalised to accommodate the unique characteristics of individual tumours.
Objective
The successful application of immune checkpoints inhibitors has modified the therapeutic strategies in several cancers but only 30% of patients will respond optimally to these therapies. One of the reasons for the failure of these therapies is the resistance of cancer stem cells (CSCs) leading to relapses long after the initial treatment. These cells are also resistant to conventional therapies via their quiescence and there are no targeted therapies available against them. The ambition of IPSIRIUS, a French biotechnology company, spinoff of INSERM and Paris Saclay University is to develop active cancer immunotherapy products based on the revolutionary induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. IPSIRIUS developed first IPVAC, with the aim of leveraging patient’s immune system against a large panel of cancer antigens which are shared between iPSC and CSCs. With IPVAC, IPSIRIUS is developing a ground-breaking technology, having resolved all technical issues limiting cell-based therapies used for cancer. IPVAC is a safe, allogenic, off-the-shelf therapy, highly scalable using a versatile technology. This cell-based vaccination strategy showed efficacy in prophylactic and therapeutic settings against aggressive solid cancers with stemness features. The overall goal of the MUTAVAC project is i) to uncover the mechanisms of action of IPVAC, ii) to generate a highly immunogenic version of IPVAC, and iii) to design robust in vitro immunogenicity tests to predict immunogenicity of IPVAC and IPVAC-Mut in humans. With MUTAVAC project, IPSIRIUS will i) strengthen the scientific data on IPVAC to prepare its clinical development and leading to the open access publications and patents, ii) define a personalised medicine to propose efficient therapeutic cancer vaccine in patients with all HLA groups, iii) identify new targets for future cancer therapies, and iv) develop a technological platform to facilitate the development of the next-generation of cell therapies.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cells
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsvaccines
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespersonalized medicine
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunologyimmunotherapy
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedCoordinator
75005 PARIS
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.