Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.Alfacell Corporation is to collaborate with the West German Cancer Center at the University of Duisburg-Essen for the development, characterization and large-scale production of a novel fusion protein for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
The fusion protein consists of Alfacell’s investigational anticancer drug Onconase (ranpirnase) and a humanized anti-CD22 monoclonal antibody.
“This fusion protein and other new molecular forms of Onconase will specifically target tumor cells by attaching to antigens on the cell surface. These antigens will specifically internalize Onconase, thereby increasing its tumor cell killing ability,” said Dr Susanna Rybak, a member of Alfacell’s scientific advisory board, who will serve as a key liaison for the company during this collaboration.
Dr Juergen Krauss and Dr Michaela Arndt, who head the Therapeutic Antibody Group at the Department of Medical Oncology and Cancer Research, will lead the project.
Dr Krauss and Dr Arndt were prominent researchers at Dr Rybak’s laboratory at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in recent years, and are noted experts in the field of antibody engineering.
At the NCI, they successfully designed and produced new thermo-stable recombinant antibodies that recognized antigens on both solid and blood-borne cancers. This remarkable body of work has been published and resulted in several new patent applications. Importantly, their research has shown that these new antibodies could enhance the ability of RNases to kill tumor cells, thus paving the way for the construction of promising new Onconase-based targeted therapies.