The Parker institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will work with more than 3 public and private pharmaceutical, biotech, cancer research nonprofits and academic institutions like the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Caltech along with the Cancer Research Institute to bring an end to this disease.
The partnership with the Cancer Research Institute will specifically focus on using bioinformatics to uncover these cancer markers.
Neoantigens is a genetic markers found only in tumors and are specific to individuals. It has created the latest buzz in cancer research, particularly in early cancer detection. They are tumor-unique amino acid tags that emerge as cells mutate into cancer. The encode immunologically active proteins that can help the immune system recognize the affected cell as foreign and signal the rest of the body’s infection-fighting army into the fray.
Each participants will study specific gene sequences from both cancerous and non-cancerous tissues, determining which ones are recognizable by t-cells. Once enough data is gathered, it can lead to producing more effective personalized neoantigen vaccines for cancer.