ANKoRD project utilizes a novel combination of Natural Killer cells and therapeutic antibodies to target and treat cancer

ANKoRD project will demonstrate the pre-clinical feasibility of the combination of NK cells and monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of solid tumours, leveraging safe and effective NK cells (of partner Glycostem), safely and transiently modified with CD16 mRNA (with technology from Utrecht university), to achieve potent ADCC responses in animal models (monitored with tools from Amsterdam UMC), monitored with innovative labelling technologies.

These findings will enable further clinical development of the technology, bridging the gap between pre-clinical and clinical research, towards safe and effective cancer immunotherapies for the overall society.

The new therapy will open novel multi-million and billion Euro markets and opportunities for revenue generation by partnering and licensing the novel platform for product developments.

Both standalone cancer therapies, NK cells and therapeutic antibodies, are limited in specificity and efficiency, where the combination of both can overcome the limitation of the other. By supercharging NK cells with an activating receptor utilized to detect and get activated by  therapeutic antibodies, the new therapy will be able to specifically increase targeting of solid tumours of NK cells, which currently are limited for curative therapeutic options, and therefore many patients will profit from effective and safe therapies.

The project aims to deliver a platform technology, which would allow the development of many different combinations of NK cells and antibodies for disease specific targeted therapies, to cover a multitude of patients suffering from solid cancers.

Figure 1 - Novel combination therapy to overcome existing challenges in cancer treatment strategies.

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