Lay summary
Cancer therapies that stimulate the anti-tumour activity of immune cells called T cells are now entering the clinic. One approach is to create therapeutic vaccines to specifically boost the numbers of anti-tumour T cells in the body, while another is to provide biological compounds that remove natural ""brakes"" on T cell activity - a class of drugs called ""immunomodulators"".
We have studied the interactions that lead to effective vaccination and have developed and patented a simple synthetic technology to manufacture potent vaccines. Based on promising preliminary evidence, we expect these vaccines to work in effective combination with immunomodulators. As there are numerous immunodulators in various stages of development, and with different modes of activity, we propose to prepare a bank of these drugs to select the most effective partner to use with our vaccines in the clinic