On November 5, 2015 Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing T cell-directed vaccines and immunotherapies, reported a collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to screen the T cell responses of melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) against the complete repertoire of patient-specific putative cancer neoantigens (Press release, Genocea Biosciences, NOV 5, 2015, View Source [SID:1234507993]).
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The goals of the collaboration are to identify signatures of T cell response in cancer patients associated with response or non-response to CPI therapy and to discover new T cell cancer vaccine antigens. ATLAS will be used in conjunction with Memorial Sloan Kettering’s patient-specific cancer neoantigen sequences and blood samples from the same cancer patients. This new collaborative work will be led by investigators Timothy A. Chan, M.D., Ph.D., Vice Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, and Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service, Department of Medicine and Ludwig Center.
"ATLAS is unique in that it makes no assumptions about which cancer antigens are meaningful and which are not. It instead takes a panoramic view of all the mutations that may yield novel targets and reveals clinically relevant T cell antigens that associate with protective immunity," said Jessica Baker Flechtner, Ph.D., senior vice president of research at Genocea. "We believe that ATLAS is a powerful platform that enables the identification of T cell responses that must be present to see an effective response to therapy. This can ultimately lead to the discovery of T cell antigens that may drive cancer vaccine development."
About ATLAS
ATLAS is a first of its kind proprietary rapid antigen identification screening system that finds targets of protective T cell responses. The technology solves challenges to date associated with finding targets of T cell responses. ATLAS can examine T cell responses from large, diverse human populations, and comprehensively screen every potential antigen from a pathogen or target indication in a rapid, high throughput manner, taking weeks versus years to find relevant antigens. Because targets identified by ATLAS are based on actual human immune responses to all potential antigens, with no guesswork or predictions, by the time these candidates reach clinical trials there may be a greater likelihood of success in clinical development. This approach provides the ability to identify smarter targets for use in developing vaccines and immunotherapies to treat infectious disease, cancer and autoimmunity.