by The Pharmaceutical GSK and the University of Oxford develop a new cancer vaccine to prevent the development of the disease.
The partnership intends to develop one or more vaccines that aim at cells in the preciser stadium before the disease has spread and has started to have devastating effects on the body.
The University of Oxford has the world’s leading expertise in researching biology before cancer, for example through the identification and sequencing of neo antigens, which are proteins that form on cancer cells and can be a goal for medication.
Several pharmaceutical companies have already achieved success with cancer vaccines that prevent the disease from occurring in people who have already suffered from cancer.
Professor Sarah Blagden from the University of Oxford will be the co-director of the new GSK-Oxford Cancer Immuno Prevention Program, which is supported by GSK £ 50 million.
She told the BBC Radio 4 program: “Cancer does not come out of nowhere.
“You always imagine that it would take about a year or two for a body to develop, but in fact we now know that it can take up to 20 years, sometimes even longer Normal cell passes into cancer. ”.
“We know that most types of cancer are actually invisible at this point when they go through this stage, which we today call pre -cancer stage.
“The purpose of the vaccine is not to vaccinate against established cancer, but actually to vaccinate against the crab preliminary stage.”
She said Oxford has specialist knowledge about precancator changes, “so that we can actually start recognizing the undiscoverable”.
She said that experts are “able to find out what properties these cells have when they develop towards cancer, and so we can develop a vaccine specifically against it.”
“In this case, we are actually concerned with cancer itself, but we attack it in the preliminary stage of cancer.”
Tony Wood, scientific director at GSK, said: “We are pleased to further strengthen our relationship with the University of Oxford and to bundle the extensive knowledge of the scientists from Oxford and GSK.”
“By researching pre -cancer biology and building on the expertise of GSK in the science of the immune system, we want to generate important knowledge for people with a risk of cancer.”
Professor Irene Tracey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: “This partnership is progress in cancer research.
“By working with GSK to bring experts in clinical studies, immunoncology, vaccinology and cancer pre -trouble from all over the University of Oxford together, we want to open up the potential of cancer vaccines and give patients worldwide hope.”
The Minister of Science and Technology, Peter Kyle, said: “Cancer is an illness that every family has caused pain and heartache in the country, including my own.
“But through our worldwide leading universities and companies that work together in step together, as Oxford and GSK do here, we can use science and innovation to change the possibilities of diagnosing and treating this disease.”
In 2021, GSK and Oxford founded the Institute of Molecular and Computational Medicine to promote research and development of new medication.
