Acquisition will strengthen the mRNA-based cancer immunotherapy candidates, marking BioNTech’s milestone in its oncology strategy. Acquisition of CureVac will complement BioNTech’s capabilities and proprietary technologies in mRNA design, delivery formulations, and mRNA manufacturing. All-stock acquisition has potential to create value for both companies’ shareholders given their complementary capabilities, focus on mRNA, and shared vision.

Knowledge of the target structures for the immune cells is a basic prerequisite for the development of personalized cancer immunotherapies. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and the NCT Heidelberg are publishing a sensitive method based on mass spectroscopy to identify such tumor-specific "neoepitopes". The analytical method is designed to detect these low abundance protein fragments and requires minimal amounts of…

TWYCE GmbH - 10/07/2024

Better immune response against prostate cancer thanks to new bispecific antibodies

TWYCE, a Tübingen-based start-up spun off from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tübingen, is focused on developing a combinatorial therapy using two bispecific antibodies from bench to clinical practice. The founders aim to introduce an effective strategy for combating solid tumours, with initial proof of concept targeted at prostate cancer.

The summer reception hosted by BioRegio STERN Management GmbH has once again provided a fitting backdrop for the Science2Start award ceremony. Last Thursday, at Tübingen observatory, was the 15th time that scientists and start-up founders were celebrated for outstanding ideas that a panel of experts judged to have special economic potential.

Activated T cells that carry a certain marker protein on their surface are controlled by natural killer cells. In this way, the body presumably curbs destructive immune reactions. Researchers now discovered that NK cells can impair the effect of cancer therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors in this way. They could also be responsible for the rapid decline of therapeutic CAR-T cells.

Immatics N.V. (NASDAQ: IMTX, “Immatics”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company active in the discovery and development of T cell-redirecting cancer immunotherapies, announced today the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 15,925,000 ordinary shares at a public offering price of $11.00 per share.

CAR-T cell therapy is a last hope for many patients with blood, bone marrow or lymph gland cancer when other treatments are unsuccessful. A limiting factor of this very effective and safe therapy is that the cells used in the process quickly reach a state of exhaustion. Researchers at the University of Freiburg have now been able to prevent this exhaustion and thus significantly improve the effect of the therapy in a preclinical animal model.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Priscilla Briquez, junior professor at the Department of General and Visceral Surgery at the Freiburg University Medical Center and member of the Medical Faculty at the University of Freiburg, has received a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant from the European Commission. Her DRESSCODE project will receive a total of 1.5 million euros funding for five years.

Epigenetically active drugs enable the cell to read parts of the genome that were previously blocked and inaccessible. This leads to the formation of new mRNA transcripts and also new proteins, as scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and the University Hospital Tübingen have now published. These "therapy-induced epitopes" could help the immune system recognize cancer cells.

Epigenetically active drugs enable the cell to read parts of the genome that were previously blocked and inaccessible. This leads to the formation of new mRNA transcripts and also new proteins, as scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and the University Hospital Tübingen have now published. These "therapy-induced epitopes" could help the immune system recognize cancer cells.

Predicting the success of cancer treatment - 20/06/2023

Focusing on gut microbiome for CAR T-cell therapy

Cancer immunotherapies use the body's own defences to fight tumour cells. An international consortium of researchers from Germany and the USA led by the DKFZ in Heidelberg has demonstrated that the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapies greatly depends on the composition of the gut microbiome. The researchers have also developed a model for predicting the long-term response to the treatment.

Cancer immunotherapies often fail because the immune cells are paralysed by immunosuppressive conditions in the tumor. Scientists from Heidelberg, Mannheim and Tel Aviv have now shown on tissue samples from patients as well as on tumor models in mice that the functionality of the immune defence depends decisively on certain helper cells.

Apogenix, a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation immunotherapeutics, announced today that asunercept showed statistically significant benefits for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the ASUNCTIS trial. The open-label multi-center phase II trial investigated efficacy and safety of asunercept in 435 patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease.

The development of immunotherapies against blood cancer could be more successful if T cells are activated moderately rather than excessively. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have now been able to show this in mice: If the researchers blocked a cytokine that slows down the immune system, the T cells became exhausted and failed in the fight against leukemia.

At Tübingen University Hospital, a preclinical study led by Dr. Clemens Hinterleitner and Prof. Dr. Lars Zender, Medical Director of Medical Oncology and Pneumology, led to extremely promising results. The research group was able to develop a new methodology that makes it possible to better predict the likelihood of success of immunotherapies for lung cancer.

At the University Hospital Tübingen, clinical evaluation of an in-house developed vaccine (CoVac-1) against SARS-CoV-2 was started in November 2020 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Juliane Walz in the CCU Translational Immunology of the Medical Clinic (Medical Director Prof. Dr. Helmut Salih). Now the results of the Phase I study are available and demonstrate a potent activation of the T-cell response against the coronavirus.

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have developed antibodies that have two antigen-binding sites and can couple cancer cells with effector cells of the immune system. In laboratory tests, these bridging antibodies, together with an enhancer antibody, were able to specifically mobilize the body's own immune defenses and destroy breast cancer cells.

Signal mechanisms in inflammatory processes - 18/05/2021

Newly discovered substances activate the inflammasome in macrophages

Low-grade chronic inflammation caused by components of the innate immune system may increase the risk of developing a variety of diseases in the long term. In their search for the signalling mechanisms underlying these inflammatory processes, Prof. Dr. Olaf Groß' research group at the Freiburg University Medical Centre discovered new active substances with immunostimulatory properties that may open up additional possibilities in cancer…

Affimed GmbH - 01/07/2020

"Innate cell engager" fighting against cancer

In the fight against tumour cells, d Affimed GmbH from Heidelberg relies entirely on the weapons of the innate immune system. Affimed has developed special innate cell engagers, which are bispecific antibodies that recognise tumour cells and bring them together with natural killer cells and macrophages of the innate immune system, which then kill the tumour cells. Clinical trials using the AFM13 molecule are ongoing.