TOWARDS A PREDICTABLE COMBINATION THERAPY FOR MULTIPLE CANCER TYPES

Glycostem and ENPICOM receive MIT Zuid subsidy to support their R&D partnership project of over half a million euro.

Two innovative Dutch SME’s active in Life Sciences, Glycostem Therapeutics BV and ENPICOM BV, announced that their joint MIT Zuid R&D partnership subsidy has been granted. The aim of the collaboration is to develop technology to predict the outcome of an NK-cell-based immunotherapy treatment in patients with incurable locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors, for which there is no standard therapy.

Background problem

The predictability of outcomes of universal NK-cell therapy (oNKord®) and immune suppressive effects are needed to select the best approach in a new immunotherapy against cancer.

Project goals

The primary goal is predicting the outcome of an NK-cell-based immunotherapy treatment in patients with incurable locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors, for which there is no standard therapy.

The integrated T-cell receptor and NK-cell receptor repertoire analysis developed in this project enables the development of a unique data-driven combination therapy that provides:

• A new immune suppression regimen in combination with allogeneic NK-cell therapy for the treatment of multiple cancer types
• An integrated model based on machine learning to predict smart treatment of immune suppression and the outcome of subsequent NK-cell therapy.

Approach & deliverables

A smart machine learning driven approach is needed. Jan Spanholtz, PhD, Glycostem Therapeutics BV’s CSO, commented: “That is why ENPICOM BV, a promising start-up with leading technology for analysis and visualisation of immunogenomic data, and Glycostem have joined forces. This R&D collaboration enables predictive modelling for smart immune suppression as preconditioning to allow allogeneic NKcell infusion as cancer treatment. Glycostem adds specific immunotherapy knowledge to the project. ENPICOM introduces leading knowledge and experience in bioinformatics and software engineering.

Jos Lunenberg, CEO of ENPICOM, added: “We are extremely pleased with this R&D partnership, as it enables us to broaden the scope of immunotherapies that we can guide with our technology from T and B cell-based to NK-cell-based therapies. Glycostem, a pioneer and expert in this field, is for us the ideal partner to adapt our technology to also support NK-cell receptor repertoire analysis”.

Source: ENPICOM