FUGE grant to develop new anticancer agents

Human antibody therapeutics company Affitech, of Oslo in Norway, and the Norwegian Radium Hospital have been awarded a grant of NOK6.2m (Euro 706,100) from FUGE (the Norwegian national FUnctional GEnomics program) to carry out research on the development of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics.

The award will fund the continuation of the collaborative research the company and the Hospital have been carrying out for the past several years.

Affitech will be working in partnership with Professor Gustav Gaudernack of the Norwegian Radium Hospital. The combination of Affitech's specialist knowledge of recombinant antibodies and Professor Gaudernack's knowledge of tumour vaccination has already proved successful in establishing methods and techniques to address various immunoproteomics problems. More specifically, according to Affitech, the partnership has utilised its expertise of advanced automation and novel techniques in molecular biology to identify tumor specific and/or associated antigens and antibodies.

'This project has a strong product focus and will build on the work that we have already carried out with Professor Gaudernack and his group,' said Martin Welschof, ceo of Affitech. 'The collaboration would aim to establish a two-pronged approach towards eliminating tumours. While we plan to use human antibodies against tumour-associated antigens to directly attack the tumour, in parallel the research team at the Norwegian Radium Hospital will use tumour antigens to stimulate the T-cell dependent arm of the immune system.

'We trust that the collaboration would facilitate the discovery of both the tumour antigens and the human antibodies recognising them.'

'The new tumour antigens are expected to provide a whole generation of new cancer vaccines that can supplement and improve the vaccines we have been testing in clinical trials during the last decade,' added Professor Gaudernack. 'The potency of the technology is virtually unlimited. We are therefore convinced that we will make major contributions to the field of cancer immunotherapy in the next few years.'