Funding period

Feb 2021 - March 2023

Investment

$515,000

from Ovarian Cancer Canada

About the project

The team has made significant strides in the development of vaccines specifically tailored to combat ovarian cancer. Leveraging their prior discovery of antigens unique to ovarian cancer, they have skillfully loaded these antigens onto dendritic cells, a specialized type of immune cell. Through careful manipulation, they’ve created a diverse array of vaccine combinations, referred to as “modules.” Testing of these modules has yielded promising results, demonstrating that a substantial portion of the antigens remains detectable even after 24 hours. Impressively, 98% of these antigens have proven to be immunogenic, meaning they have the ability to stimulate an immune response within the body. Given that these tumor antigens are prevalent in a significant proportion of epithelial ovarian cancers, the vaccine modules emerging from this study hold tremendous potential as a novel therapeutic approach for a broad spectrum of patients battling this disease.

A syringe and two glass vaccine vials

Next up: bringing this promising treatment to patients in a clinical trial