News
15-Jan-2008 - Grant announced for £1.8m project to develop
cell-based cancer vaccines
Onyvax, UCL and LGC Awarded Grant for a £1.8m Project to
Develop Predictive Manufacturing Tools for Cell Based Cancer
Vaccines
London, UK, 14 January 2008: Onyvax Ltd , the biotechnology
company developing novel cancer therapies, announced today that a
UK consortium, led by Onyvax, has been awarded a grant by the UK
Technology Strategy Board for a £1.8 million project that will help
develop new generations of cell-based vaccines for cancer.
The project will combine micro-scale process engineering
technology with both advanced analytical and informatic methods to
predict and optimize cell line performance in large scale
manufacturing processes. If successful, the technology will reduce
the cost and time involved in selecting and producing new cell
lines to form the basis of future cancer vaccines. In addition, the
technology could be applied to other areas of cell therapy,
including regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy.
Dr Stephen Ward, Director of Development at Onyvax, said:
"Following successful results in prostate cancer, Onyvax is
applying the cell-based cancer vaccine approach to other cancer
types. The micro-scale technology will allow us to predict how a
cell line will perform in an intensive manufacturing process. With
these new tools, we hope to determine the robustness of a cell line
earlier in the development lifecycle and to reject those that are
not suitable, thereby reducing the time to market for these
innovative medicines."
The award comprises £1.1m from the Technology Strategy Board,
supported with additional funding from consortia members. In
addition to Onyvax, the consortium includes:
- The Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, UCL , who will
use their ultra scale-down and whole bioprocessing technology to
assess the impact of the bioprocessing environment on vaccine
cells.
- LGC, a science-based service company and designated National Measurement Institute for chemical
and bioanalysis, who will apply know-how and capability based on
advanced mass spectrometry and array-based platforms for
characterisation of both intracellular and extracellular protein
markers.
- Nottingham Trent University, a leader in bioinformatics, who
will provide proprietary Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithms
to mine the complex multivariate analytical datasets and identify
biomarkers indicative of cell robustness.
The project will run from January 2008 to March 2011.
Notes to Editors