Innovation in Cancer Therapy

CCBIO - UiB and Helse Bergen invite to a Special Seminar in innovation, responding to the public and governmental request for personalized medicine in cancer care. A team of investigators from CCBIO has taken the initiative to form a Centre for Research Based Innovation, aiming to form a unique ecosystem of large and small biotech companies where research is closely linked to the clinical practice. Built around clinical trials in cancer, this flagship center will assemble expertise from preclinical research, bioinformatics, and exploratory biomarkers to accelerate personalized medicine. The Seminar will present small and larger biotechs, big pharma and the research institute sector with some of their strategies, hopefully leading to inspiration for innovation career development among our young investigators and students.

The seminar is open to all and includes a pizza get-together following the seminar. No registration needed.

Time: Thursday August 15th at 12:30-16:00

Place: Auditorium 4, BB-building

Chairperson: Bjørn Tore Gjertsen

There will be 20 minute presentations by:

• Alden Cancer Therapy II
• BerGenBio, DC Prime
• KINN Therapeutics
• Pfizer Norway
• PubGene
• SINTEF

Program (printable program here):

12:30 – 14:00 Introduction and 20-minute presentations:

Alden Cancer Therapy II - ACT II - Cancer cryoimmunotherapy (CryoIT)Karl-Henning Kalland, CEO, Professor, MD & PhD

CryoIT is a dendritic cell-based cancer immunotherapy that theoretically may confront cancer cell heterogeneity as a personalized treatment. Autologous dendritic cells are injected intratumorally following cryoablation of the cancer tissue inside the patient, thus exposing the entire individualized collection of tumor-associated antigens to the injected dendritic cells. Advanced monitoring of the subsequent immune response and consecutive boosting of the new immune response are integrated aspects. Generation of more potent and robust GMP-grade therapeutic dendritic cells is planned in Bergen in connection with Helse Bergen's new GMP-certified Ex vivo facility for therapeutic cells. Recent and ongoing discoveries in our Drug Discovery and Development Program, regarding novel compounds, molecular targets and mechanisms, are exploited to enhance next generation CryoIT.

BerGenBio - Targeting AXL to treat cancerGro Gausdal, PhD, Director of Research and Bergen Site Leader

BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative drugs targeting AXL as a potential cornerstone of therapy for aggressive diseases, including immune-evasive, therapy resistant cancers. The company’s proprietary lead candidate, bemcentinib, is a first-in-class, highly selective, potent, and orally bioavailable inhibitor of AXL in a broad phase II oncology clinical development programme focused on combination and single agent therapy in lung cancer and leukaemia. BerGenBio is based in Bergen, Norway with a subsidiary in Oxford, UK. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange

DC Prime - Relapse vaccines in cancer treatmentRichard de Heer, Director Business Development and Finance

DCprime is developing relapse vaccines, a new class of cancer vaccines focused on the prevention or delay of cancer relapse. Preclinical and clinical data for DCprime’s lead relapse vaccine, DCP-001, will be presented.

KinN Therapeutics - Preclinical models for validation of targeted threapy and immunotherapyEmmet Mc Cormack, CEO, PhD, Professor

KinN Therapeutics is a Bergen -based biopharmaceutical company focused on preclinical service for development of novel anticancer compounds. At KinN Therapeutics we believe that the current dogma of rushing novel pharmaceuticals through inappropriate preclinical models is one of the major reasons for their limited clinical penetration. This can only be solved through multidisciplinary development of preclinical surrogates, models and diagnostic tools that more accurately mimic clinical conditions.

14:00 – 14:20 Coffee break

14:20-15:20 Presentations:

Pfizer “Breakthroughs that change people’s lives”Cathrine S. Notland, Medical Lead Norway and Denmark, Oncology MScPharm          

Pfizer is proud of its long history of successfully partnering with external organizations that share our purpose to deliver breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. The classical development models of medicines will be facing challenges as the treatment of cancer gets more and more personalized. This leads to smaller cohorts of patients rendering the classical randomized, double-blinded, phase III study more difficult to conduct. New development models collaborating with various external organizations are therefore a relevant direction for big pharma companies to investigate.

PubGene - Enabling personalized medicine – putting patients firstHåvard Hildeng Hauge, Board member, PhD

PubGene AS was founded in response to a clear demand for products that organize information for life sciences. Our mission is to empower patients with a life changing disease to live longer and better lives by discovering the most precise, effective and evidence-based treatment plan. We use proprietary bioinformatics tools to personalize biomedical information. Information relevant to drug development, disease prevention, diagnostics and other issues pertaining to human health and wellbeing is the data-domain that PubGene addresses.

SINTEF - High-throughput screening, analysis and biopharmaceutical production for cancer therapyHanne Haslene-Hox, PhD, Research Scientist

SINTEF has a generic infrastructure and broad activities within cancer-related research, spanning from the development of drug leads, including tailoring and optimization of biopharmaceutical production, to in vitro and in vivo efficacy studies. We employ in-depth analysis of small molecules, metabolites, genes, proteins and nanoparticles and evaluate safety and effect in cells with our high-throughput screening platform.

15:20 Pizza get-together
Right outside the auditorium