In January 2024 Evaxion announced an “expanded commitment” to developing tailored cancer vaccines using AI-identified tumour antigens, Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs). This “new treatment opportunity” is expected to broaden the applicability of cancer vaccines to allow treatment of patients who are “unresponsive to conventional cancer immunotherapy”. Evaxion states that, with an “elevated focus on this groundbreaking therapeutic concept”, the team has initiated preclinical activities with the aim of generating proof-of-concept data by late 2024.
What are ERVs?
Evaxion describes ERVs as “remnants of ancient viruses” that lie “dormant” in the human genome. They are “often overexpressed in cancer” but not in healthy cells, which makes them noticeable to the immune system and therefore a “promising” target for cancer vaccines. Using AI-Immunology, Evaxion hopes to identify “therapeutically relevant” ERV tumour antigens from patient data.
AI-Immunology is a “scalable and adaptable” platform that integrates the “collective power” of previous models to “model the complexity of the patient’s immune system”. With this platform, Evaxion researchers can identify, predict, and design vaccine candidates in a process that is “revolutionising the landscape of immunotherapy” through a “holistic and personalised approach”.
Evaxion’s Chief Scientific Officer is Dr Birgitte Rønø, who is optimistic that the “intensified focus” on these ERV cancer vaccines will enable her team to “expedite the development process to deliver treatment solutions”. These solutions will reach cancer patients who, “until now, have been deemed unresponsive to immunotherapy”.
“The ERV cancer vaccine targets represent a promising breakthrough that could significantly broaden the horizons of cancer vaccine applicability and marks a significant step forward in our commitment to improving healthcare through innovative and AI-powered approaches.”
Dr Rønø has already found “significant interest” in these vaccines and looks forward to “further underpinning the significant potential” with proof-of-concept data.
We’re looking forward to hearing more about these approaches from Evaxion in April, when the team will join us in Washington for the Congress. Do join us for this exciting opportunity and subscribe to our newsletters for more updates!
