OVACELL

Ovarian cancer represents one of the deadliest cancers in women. Due to its late-stage diagnosis, it is associated with poor survival rates. The OVACell (Development of a cell immunotherapy targeting non-conventional tumor antigens in ovarian cancer) project aims to address this medical challenge with an innovative TCR-T cell therapy targeting non-conventional antigens derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs). Although HERVs are remnants of ancient retroviral infections and typically inactive, they can become abnormally expressed in cancer cells, and this has been observed across a high proportion of patients. Based on data science and AI analysis, researchers have identified antigens with promising efficacy in in vitro and ovarian cancer animal models. ErVimmune will develop this product candidate by scaling up its small-scale manufacturing process and demonstrating its efficacy and safety in humans.