Personalised colon cancer vaccine project gets funding boost

A project aiming to make a breakthrough in personalised medicine for advanced colon cancer has been awarded over €2 million by the Flemish government. 

The Persomed consortium will put the funding towards its Icon project, which aims to develop an effective personalised colon cancer vaccine that can be deployed on a large scale. The Persomed consortium is a public-private partnership between the Free University of Brussels and industrial partners and companies.

Persomed has developed a customised vaccine for patients with advanced colon cancer. The vaccine uses dendritic cells, or patient-specific immune cells, to activate the immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells. The next stage of the project is to refine the dendritic cell therapy into an effective, safe, and affordable vaccine that can be produced on a larger scale. 

In particular, Persomed is hoping to identify and isolate a part of mutated cancerous cells known as epitopes. The idea is that by identifying and isolating patient-specific epitopes, Persomed can use a targeted treatment for patients with advanced colon cancer. 

Now, four new partners have joined the Icon project to help Persomed develop the vaccine delivery method, as well as the manufacturing requirements behind it. 

Bioinformatics specialist myNEO will utilise its tumour analysis platform to help determine on which specific epitopes the research should be focused. 

Consultancy firm QbD and R&D specialist in cell process engineering Antleron will build a validated, scalable and cost-efficient manufacturing process around the research. 

That manufacturing process, conceptually developed by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), consists of reprogramming the patient’s blood cells into immune-activating dendritic cells that will then be administered back into the patient. Once administered back into the patient, the immune-activating dendritic cells then stimulate the immune system like a vaccine does. 

Persomed is aiming to develop a proof-of-concept and phase I clinical study for at least eight patients by mid 2021. This will be followed by a larger study in 2022, and in 2024, Persomed hopes that the vaccine could be ready for applying to broad use registration.

“Flanders is a true biotech region that we can be very proud of,” says Hilde Crevits, Flemish minister for innovation. “And thanks to these entrepreneurs, many lives can be improved and saved, both in Flanders and around the world. This Icon project bears witness to a strong urge for innovation. That is something I obviously welcome as the Minister for Innovation. Among other things, the important potential for a cancer cure and the involvement of a world-class VUB research group have convinced the independent experts to support this partnership. I wish the researchers a lot of success.”