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LIH joins forces with Advanced BioDesign to improve cancer immunotherapy
LIH TIME group strengthens the translational research in immuno-oncology by establishing a partnership with the French Biotech company “Advanced BioDesign”
The Tumor Immunotherapy and Microenvironment (TIME) research group of the LIH Department of Oncology (DONC) teamed-up with Advanced BioDesign to develop innovative combinatorial immunotherapy approaches. The aim is to potentiate the effectiveness of immunotherapy and provide a ground-breaking approach to treat cancers.
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB)-based cancer immunotherapy provided remarkable clinical benefits in many cancers. However, despite the exciting and encouraging clinical responses observed in few patients, the majority have a short-term or no survival benefit with severe side-effects. Therefore, there is a strong clinical need to design combinatorial strategies to extend the benefit of immunotherapy to a large number of cancer patients. To this end, the TIME research group, led by Dr Bassam Janji, in collaboration with Dr Guy Berchem, has partnered with Advanced BioDesign to develop novel approaches that effectively extend the benefit of cancer immunotherapy by combing innovative and highly selective molecules inhibiting resistance mechanisms in multiple cancers. In their highly collaborative “TRICK-ALDH” project, the scientists will assess the benefit of immunotherapy combined to first-in-class oncology drugs to efficiently suppress carcinogenesis and prevent resistance to cancer therapies. The overall objective of TRICK-ALDH project is to propose a novel rational synergistic targeted therapy and immunotherapy combination to deliver long-term survival benefit to solid tumors, with particular focus on melanoma and lung cancer. Through this innovation-compelled synergistic collaboration between TIME group at LIH and Advanced BioDesign, the teams hope to develop innovative immunotherapeutic combinatorial approaches that could create tremendous enthusiasm in anticancer care.
“We believe that true translational oncology and translational research in general can only effectively be achieved by leveraging the scientific and business expertise of internationally renowned industrial partners. We are confident that our close collaboration with Advanced BioDesign will catalyse the development of the next-generation of combinatorial treatments for a variety of cancers, with concrete and tangible benefits in the clinical practice,” commented Dr Bassam Janji (head of TIME group).
The “TRICK-ALDH” project received financial support from the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) under the BRIDGES scheme dedicated to fostering the cooperation between public research institutions in Luxembourg and companies actively involved in R&D.
We eagerly look forward to continue the work with the TIME group. In the era of cancer immunotherapy, metabolic reprograming remains a challenge as it can affect the tumour immune microenvironment and provide multiple survival advantages to cancer cells. This collaborative work unifies ABD and TIME group expertise and is expected to provide a powerful approach to harness tumour metabolism and the immune system to target cancer and lead to the development of more effective cancer therapy,
said Dr Mileidys Perez (CSO of Advanced BioDesign.
Advanced BioDesign has already demonstrated and published very promising results for acute myeloid leukemia, melanoma, and NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). The company is seeking to extend its anticancer therapeutic strategy to include immune precision medicine with the aim of increasing the efficacy and reducing the adverse effects of current treatments, as well as adding new treatments to the existing therapeutic arsenal. Data generated by the partnership with the TIME research group will be essential for understanding the contribution of Advanced BioDesign anticancer compounds in the treatment of patients with malignant immunosuppressive tumors.
ABOUT THE LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF HEALTH
The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is a public biomedical research organization focused on precision health and invested in becoming a leading reference in Europe for the translation of scientific excellence into meaningful benefits for patients.
LIH places the patient at the heart of all its activities, driven by a collective obligation towards society to use knowledge and technology arising from research on patient derived data to have a direct impact on people’s health. Its dedicated teams of multidisciplinary researchers strive for excellence, generating relevant knowledge linked to immune related diseases and cancer.
The institute embraces collaborations, disruptive technology and process innovation as unique opportunities to improve the application of diagnostics and therapeutics with the long-term goal of preventing disease.
ABOUT THE TIME GROUP
The TIME group has gained an international position by revealing the impact of the tumor microenvironment in shaping the anti-tumour immune response. To keep a leading position within this field, the TIME group strives, through its basic research and clinically oriented aspects, to translate knowledge generated on the bench to the bedside by designing combinatorial treatment in preclinical models that can be translated into the clinic. To fulfil the strategic priorities, the TIME group has established outstanding collaborations with several cancer centers, research institutions and pharma companies.
ABOUT ADVANCED BIODESIGN
Advanced BioDesign is a French biotechnology company developing an innovative approach to treat resistant cancers, with a first indication in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Its main anti-cancer compound, DIMATE (ABD-3001), is a first-in-class suicide inhibitor of aldehyde dehydrogenases 1 & 3 (ALDH1 & 3). The ALDH enzyme allows cancer cells to detoxify themselves by recycling harmful molecules. By inhibiting this enzyme, ABD-3001 causes apoptosis of the cancer cells without damaging healthy cells.
ABD-3001 is currently in the preclinical stage. Advanced BioDesign plans to submit its regulatory file to the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM) in early 2021. The company is actively preparing to enter phase 1 clinical trials in 2021.
Founded in 2010 and based in Saint-Priest, near Lyon (France), Advanced BioDesign has benefited from the strategic and scientific support of Xerys experts since 2013. As part of the continued funding of its research and development programs, Advanced BioDesign secured €15 million at the end of 2021 from Xerys Invest.
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