The company will work with Dr Steven Rosenberg, chief, Surgery Branch, who has identified and characterized a number of melanoma tumor-associated antigens and has developed a lymphodepleting non-myeloablative regimen used for adoptive cell therapy (ACT).
The collaboration intends to produce viral-based vectors to immunize individuals against malignant melanoma. These immunizations may be given in conjunction with adoptive cell therapy ACT, involving tumor antigen-specific T lymphocytes.
The collaboration may also involve new uses of ACT, the technique developed by Dr Rosenberg’s laboratory at the NCI consists of an in-vitro conditioning and amplification of a patient’s own tumor-antigen specific cytotoxic-directed lymphocytes, then restoring these lymphocytes to the patient following a lymphodepleting non-myeloablative chemotherapy.
Transgene and the NCI will evaluate new candidate cancer vaccines, with the objective to assess the boosting effect of the vaccination on the lymphocytes’ activity.
“We are very excited by the prospect of combining our proprietary vaccine technology with the ACT approach developed by Dr Rosenberg’s team. We are looking forward to working with Dr Rosenberg in designing new treatments for melanoma and we are proud to be associated with one of the most promising approaches in the field of cancer immunotherapy,” said Dr Jean-Yves Bonnefoy, chief scientific officer of Transgene.