Forskning i PRIMA

Research in PRIMA

Immunotherapy has dramatically improved outcomes for cancer patients. A single injection of gene-modified immune cells equipped with a therapeutic receptor that targets cancer cells can cure several cancer types originating from blood cells. However, the success of gene therapy has not yet been extended to other cancer types, where two major challenges are i) difficulties in identifying safe target molecules and efficacious immune receptors that recognize them, and ii) immune-suppressive mechanisms in the tumor. The Precision Immunotherapy Alliance (PRIMA) will use the immune system of healthy donors to overcome these bottlenecks and extend cell-based immunotherapy to a range of blood and solid cancers. Novel categories of therapeutic targets that are shared among large numbers of patients can thereby be exploited. Other targets for precision immunotherapy will be identified by a combination of sophisticated computational analysis tools and experiments that identify cell types and how they interact in the tumor. A combination of gene-modified immune cells and new agents that overcome tumor defense mechanisms may radically improve cancer therapy. Promising therapeutic modalities will be scaled-up for first-in-man clinical trials in a new infrastructure for advanced cell and gene therapy.