Epitopea co-pilots fresh fight against lung and ovarian cancers
The collaborative research project will feature Epitopea and Université de Montréal (UdeM) – a leading Canadian research institution renowned for scientific innovation and technology transfer.
A grant of around £830k was made to the university to cover the next three years. CQDM is the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery.
CryptoMapTM is a platform resulting from the work of Professors Claude Perreault and Pierre Thibault at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of UdeM.
This platform has already allowed identification of non-mutated tumour antigens, uniquely expressed by cancer cells present in patients with the same type of cancer, called CryptigensTM.
During this project, novel CryptigenTM sets will be identified from patients with diverse origins enabling the creation of universal RNA-coding cancer vaccines targeting this new class of antigens.
Epitopea’s role is to validate this unique approach to stimulate the immune system to precisely recognise and destroy cancer cells more rapidly and effectively.
This project has the potential to ‘unveil’ an unprecedented collection of CryptigensTM, an approach that distinguishes Epitopea from other cancer vaccine companies.
Based on these data, Epitopea will be positioned to develop new RNA-based immunotherapies from this vast collection of patients samples and advance these innovative products into clinical trials.
Epitopea's mission aligns perfectly with Quebec's initiatives to develop expertise in the field of RNA vaccines, as was highlighted in the recent AReNA announcement, Quebec's new RNA cluster, which aims to position Quebec as a leader in RNA-based therapies.
Christine Fréchette, Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy, Minister responsible for Regional Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Greater Montreal Area, is excited by the project.
She said: “Our government is pleased to support CQDM’s initiative to facilitate research into new RNA-targeting therapies for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
“Québec is a global centre for innovation in the life sciences and we remain committed to pushing forward on behalf of all Quebecers who are affected by cancer in one way or another.”
Epitopea’s CEO, Alan C. Rigby, added: “We are very pleased to partner with CQDM, UdeM, and our scientific co-founders, Drs. Perreault and Thibault to further extend the patient population that could potentially benefit from Epitopea’s transformative approach to treating cancer.
“Epitopea will initially deploy these CryptigensTM in an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine approach, which we believe offers significant competitive advantages over personalised cancer vaccines being developed by many other organisations in the RNA immunotherapy ecosystem.
“Thanks to its refined versatility, we believe that the CryptoMapTM platform developed at UdeM could be applied to a wide range of tumor types, positively impacting patient responses in Quebec and across the globe.”
Diane Gosselin, President and CEO of CQDM, said the collaboration between the Université de Montréal and Epitopea “illustrates Quebec's dynamism as a world leader in immunotherapy research.
“Not only will this project strengthen our understanding of cancer treatments, it will also position Quebec as a key player in the global vaccine and RNA therapy industry,” she said.