An international consortium carrying out research into tumor regression has reported that it has achieved “milestones”. According to a press release issued by InSphero, a biotechnology company actively involved in the consortium’s work, the research group has been able to successfully demonstrate full tumor regression by way of reprogramming dendritic cells. Headquartered in Schlieren in the canton of Zurich, InSphero is a spin-off from the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH).
The research laboratory Asgard Therapeutics based in the Swedish city of Lund is project coordinator for the REPRINT (REPRogramming tumor INTo Immune Cells: a revolutionary gene therapy to treat cancer) project, with Lund University, the French research institute Antineo in Lyon and InSphero all also involved. The Eurostars Program is supporting the REPRINT project. Funded by the Eurostars partner countries and the European Union (EU) through the Horizon 2020 program, the project has been running since October 2021. A grant in the amount of 2 million euros was awarded for research work carried out over a period of three years.
The research group has now announced that it has secured proof-of-principle for the efficacy of dendritic cell reprogramming to activate in-vivo anti-tumor immunity. Dendritic cells are part of the immune system and are able to recognize foreign structures and degenerated cells such as tumors, in addition to initiating their destruction.
According to comments from project manager Wolfgang Moritz, InSphero presented evidence that two key milestones have been reached during a meeting of the project participants. “First, we efficiently replicated tumor cell reprogramming into dendritic cells in our ex-vivo 3D Microtissue Platform”, Moritz explains in the press release. This process was made visible and the efficiency was assessed. Second, InSphero presented the prototype of a new plate that accommodates the cells for research purposes. gba
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