Mutanome Engineered RNA Immuno-Therapy

Objective

The Mutanome Engineered RNA Immuno-Therapy (MERIT) project aims to clinically translate and industrially validate a pioneering RNA-based immunotherapy approach to target the individual tumour antigen signature. MERIT focuses on previous inventions, fits into the overall business and innovation needs of the partners, and addresses triple-negative breast cancer patients with high medical need. The MERIT concept, including patents and potential products, was developed using EU FP6 funding. The innovative therapeutics will pave the way for generation of scientific knowledge and technologies and will stimulate the development of new products, tools, patents, and innovative marketable applications.
The concept behind MERIT is to implement a highly innovative Next-Generation-Immunotherapy drug platform enabling Next–Generation-Sequencing-guided stratified medicine and clinical-grade individualized RNA vaccines. Every patient’s tumour expresses many shared tumour-specific antigens and bears a highly individual molecular “signature” comprising 10’s to 100’s of non-synonymous mutations, many of which are immunogenic. We will use clinical-grade RNA to produce a) a warehouse of therapeutic vaccines targeting shared antigens and b) custom therapeutic vaccines targeting patient-specific mutations. Upon success, partner BioNTech will move the therapeutics to advanced clinical trials and commercial applications for the benefit of triple negative breast cancer patients and other solid tumours.

Fields of science

• natural sciences › biological sciences › genetics › RNA
• medical and health sciences › clinical medicine › oncology › breast cancer
• medical and health sciences › basic medicine › immunology › immunotherapy
• natural sciences › biological sciences › genetics › mutation
• medical and health sciences › basic medicine › pharmacology and pharmacy › pharmaceutical drugs › vaccines

Programme(s)

• FP7-HEALTH - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Health

Topic(s)

• HEALTH.2013.0-1 - Boosting the translation of health research projects' results into innovative applications for health

Call for proposal

FP7-HEALTH-2013-INNOVATION-2
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Coordinator

BIONTECH AG

Address

Holderlinstrasse 8
55131 Mainz
Germany

Activity type

Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)

EU contribution

€ 4 456 750

 

Administrative Contact

Ugur Sahin (Prof.)

Participants (4)

INSTITUT GUSTAVE ROUSSY

France

EU contribution

€ 453 750

Address

Rue Camille Desmoulins 39
94805 Villejuif

Activity type

Research Organisations

Administrative Contact

Arnauld Forest (Mr.)

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL

Belgium

EU contribution

€ 401 250

Address

Pleinlaan 2
1050 Brussel

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Administrative Contact

Nik Claesen (Mr.)

University of Zurich

Switzerland

EU contribution

€ 315 000

Address

Ramistrasse 71
8006 Zurich

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Administrative Contact

Steve Pascolo (Dr.)

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET

Sweden

EU contribution

€ 337 500

Address

Von Kraemers Alle 4
751 05 Uppsala

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Administrative Contact

Pirkko Boox (Mrs.)