Researchers from IrsiCaixa, Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) developed an innovative cancer vaccination system that significantly slows the progression of melanoma in preclinical models. The team created a new computational algorithm optimised for selecting highly immunogenic neoantigens -specific molecules on tumour cells that can trigger strong immune responses. Using this algorithm, they designed vaccines based on virus-like particles (VLPs), which can carry multiple neoantigens and promote broad immune response against cancer cells.
 

Preclinical studies, conducted at the Comparative Medicine and Bioimage Centre of Catalonia (CMCiB), showed slower progression of tumour growth as well as improved survival in mouse models. These findings, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine in 2024, demonstrate the potential of the VLP platform -a technology patented by IrsiCaixa and initially developed to combat HIV- for use in cancer immunotherapy.
 

This research has also provided the foundational insights and methodological groundwork for the development of a vaccine against pancreatic cancer, as VLPs can be personalised using different combinations of neoantigens to target different types of cancer including pancreatic tumours.

Carmen Aguilar, senior researcher at IrsiCaixa, who is co-lead author of the melanoma study, is currently leading the development of a neoantigen-based vaccine against pancreatic cancer, for which she has received the Patentability Study Award in the first edition of the Innomed incubator's program of the IGTP and funding from two projects awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
 

"Those experiments have been the seed for our cancer vaccine, and makes the ground floor and the strong basis for the future clinical development." - Carmen Aguilar