Many cancers escape the body's immune system by inhibiting immune cells. In this process, a particular contact between molecules on the surfaces of tumor cells and killer cells is crucial. A promising group of new anticancer drugs – called checkpoint inhibitors – blocks this contact, thereby rendering tumors vulnerable to immune attack.
Drugs of this class that are currently available are directed against just a few of these so-called “immune brakes“. However, scientists assume that there are many more proteins on cancer cells that are capable of inhibiting the immune system.
When working at the DKFZ, tumor immunologists Khandelwal and Beckhove, who are cofounders of the biotech startup company iOmx Therapeutics AG, had developed a genetic high-throughput screening approach for identifying these immune-modulating proteins on individual tumors. Using their new method, they were able to identify several new factors that are involved in the contact between cancer cells and immune cells. Their potential to be used as targets for “next generation cancer immunotherapy treatments“ is now being examined.
The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) has granted an exclusive license to iOmx Therapeutics for the complete technology involved in this screening method. Thus, the company is using a potent technology platform for its quest for targeted immunotherapy treatments.
“To receive such high funding is really a distinction for a young enterprise in the life science field,“ said Ruth Herzog, who is head of Technology Transfer at the DKFZ. “And we are also very pleased that intellectual property from the German Cancer Research Center is being so highly recognized by international investors.“
Philipp Beckhove now works at Regensburg University, where he has a professorship for Interventional Immunology and serves as Executive Director of the Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology (RCI). Nisit Khandelwal is Research Director at iOmx, where he supports the development of the company.
A picture for this press release is available for download at:
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Image source: Markus Feuerer, Dieter Schröter, DKFZ
Caption: Cancer often inhibits the body's own immune system (here a dendritic cell surrounded by T cells)