Ferrier-led research wins multi-million-dollar funding
A Ferrier Research Institute-led project to develop a new cancer immunotherapy vaccine has been awarded nearly $10 million in funding in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's 2016 Endeavour Fund science investment round.
Led by Professor Gavin Painter from Victoria’s Ferrier Research Institute, the five-year project is being run in collaboration with researchers from the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, based at Victoria, and the Universities of Auckland and Otago.
The team will develop vaccine technologies to complement existing cancer immunotherapies.
“The clinical success of the cancer immunotherapies Opdivo and Keytruda has seen their recent approval in New Zealand for the treatment of advanced melanoma,” says Professor Painter.
“Present immunotherapies, such as monoclonal antibody drugs like Keytruda, work by blocking proteins on immune cells that are preventing an immune response. They are difficult and expensive to manufacture, however, and only a minority of patients respond. They will likely work best when combined with other cancer therapies.”
Professor Painter says the newly-funded research project seeks to address some of these issues through the development of complementary immunotherapies.
“The aim of our research is to develop an off-the-shelf, low cost, non-toxic cancer vaccine. Based on our research into key cellular and molecular interactions, we hope to generate new vaccines that elicit stronger and more precise responses.
“We will use clever chemical approaches in the manufacture of these products, which will be made synthetically, in a controlled environment. This will ensure better patient responses and lower production costs.”
The team hopes the project will also benefit New Zealand economically, says Ferrier Research Institute Director, Professor Richard Furneaux.
“With this funding support we’re able to not only develop and manufacture these vaccines in New Zealand, but can also work to retain the early phase clinical trials through additional local private investment.
“The project will tap into New Zealand’s biomedical support infrastructure, including Lower Hutt-based Avalia Immunotherapies—an early stage cancer vaccine development company—and GlycoSyn for pharmaceutical manufacturing.”
It’s an exciting time for cancer therapies, and one of rapid change, says Professor Painter.
“Research into understanding the immune system has created a fundamental shift in how we think about traditional, long-standing, cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, and how these treatments combine with new drugs and immunotherapies that work by targeting the immune system.
“It’s exciting to be able to combine our knowledge and expertise with other New Zealand-based researchers and clinicians in translational drug development.”