Accelerating development of vaccines against cancer with pigs as a large animal model

Accelerating development of vaccines against cancer with pigs as a large animal model (CANVACPIG)
This project runs July 1st 2014 and until December 31st 2017. It is budgeted for 5.7 million DKK and is financed by the Danish Council for Independent Research, ID: DFF – 4005-00428.
Current project participants
•Professor Gregers Jungersen, DTU National Veterinary Institute
•Postdoc Thomas Mørch Frøsig, DTU National Veterinary Institute
•PhD student Nana Haahr Overgaard, DTU National Veterinary Institute
•Master’s thesis student Rikke Sølbeck Andersen, DTU National Veterinary Institute
•Postdoc Maria Rathmann Sørensen, DTU National Veterinary Institute
•Professor Søren Buus, University of Copenhagen
•Professor Mads Hald Andersen, Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, Herlev Hospital
Former project participants
•Master’s thesis student Zina Al-Shatrawi, DTU National Veterinary Institute
•Master’s thesis student Mette Ilsøe, DTU National Veterinary Institute
The project
Development of vaccines against cancer requires the use of animal models before new vaccines can be used in patients. The mouse is most often used, but there are large differences in the immune system between humans and mice. The immune system of the pig on contrary resembles the human one in several ways, and we aim therefore to accelerate the development of cancer vaccines by using pigs as an animal model for the correct activation of the immune system by vaccination. The goal is to identify the optimal vaccine composition for stimulation of the immune system and the generation of killer cells specifically attacking the cancer cells.
Vaccines, consisting of cancer-related molecules (peptides) and the combination with different immune-activating substances will be tried in healthy pigs. By using luminescent tissue type molecules in the laboratory we can monitor the development of killer cells after the vaccination, specifically recognizing the cell surface of the cancer cells.