LICR Programs Receive Multi-Million Dollar Grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies
A group of LICR scientists led by Dr. Lloyd Old (Director, New York Branch) has been awarded a grant of USD18 million over three years for clinical discovery projects in the Antibody Targeting, Cancer Vaccine and Signaling Programs.
The grant is from the international foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, which has an ultimate goal of making lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people.
The partnership between The Atlantic Philanthropies and LICR will use LICR’s infrastructure and operating know-how to extend the successful model of vaccine and antibody development, pioneered by Dr. Old, into tumor types that have not benefited from advances to date. The program will also permit the Institute to extend current Branch research projects into entirely new initiatives exploring small molecule inhibitors. This is an area in which LICR has strong laboratory experience and the research has matured to the point where preclinical and clinical investigation of novel therapies is now warranted.
The submission was made by a collaboration of investigators from the LICR Brussels, Melbourne, New York, UCL and Uppsala Branches, the LICR Melbourne Centre for Clinical Sciences, Affiliates in Brazil, France, Switzerland, UK and USA, and Drs. Andy Simpson (Executive Director for Programs & Operations), Eric Hoffman (Office of Clinical Trials Management) and Sarah White (Office of Communications).Projects making up the successful grant application include:
- development of new screening technologies to identify cancer antigens for cancer vaccines and targeted antibodies;
- the production of cancer antigens, for members of the global Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, by the Cornell University/LICR Bioprocess Development and Production Facility;
- development of new cancer vaccine adjuvants (vaccine components that enhance immune responses);
- Optimization and use of immune monitoring technologies for early-phase clinical trials;
- Engineering and characterization of novel targeted antibodies;
- Screening for small molecule inhibitors of mutated, oncogenic JAK kinases, the S6 kinase, and TGF-β;
- Development of multiplex monitoring of signaling pathway activation in cancer by new mass spectrometry technology platform;
- Phase I and II clinical trials of cancer vaccines, targeted antibodies and a PI3K small molecule inhibitor.