We are delighted to announce the success of the HEALED Consortium in securing DTIF support of €6.8M as part of a 3-year, €10.5M programme to develop next generation cell therapies for cancer. The consortium is comprised of RemedyBio as programme lead, aCGT Vector DAC, Trinity College Dublin & St James’s Hospital, and the SFI Centre for Research Training (CRT) in Genomics Data Science at NUIG. This group brings together deep capabilities in mass-scale functional biology, GMP clinical deployment, clinical and tumour microenvironment expertise in cancer, and molecular data analytics to create a world first in near-patient, personalised, functional cancer therapeutics.
Our goal is to enable a new kind of revolutionary immunotherapy to cure incurable cancers. The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) is managed and funded through the Department of Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) in Ireland.
Dan Crowley, RemedyBio CEO, said “This consortium unites unique frontier capabilities in therapeutics discovery, manufacturing, bioinformatics & tumour biology around excellence in clinical cancer care to truly disrupt how game changing cancer cures will be delivered”.
Dr Colm Galligan, RemedyBio Chief Medical Officer, added “Cell therapies have already made a big impact in a small number of cancer types. This consortium brings together the key skills, capabilities and ambition to push the technological boundaries to realise the potential for next generation cell therapies for those hardest-to-treat cancer types”.
Prof Maeve Lowery, Prof of Translational Cancer Medicine, Trinity College Dublin: “This award builds on a foundation of excellence in translational cancer research and clinical patient care at the OECI-accredited Trinity St James Cancer Institute (TSJCI) and the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI). We look forward to working with our consortium partners to develop next generation cell therapy and ultimately improve outcomes for patients with difficult to treat cancers through a precision immunotherapy approach”.
Gary McAuslan, CEO aCGT Vector DAC: “Next generation cell therapies will require next generation technology platform manufacturing capabilities. aCGT Vector is enabling clinical deployment of such technology platforms proximal to the patient”.
Dr Pilib Ó Broin, NUIG CRT Research Theme Lead in methods, frameworks and infrastructure development for genomics, added: "Advances in data science and deep learning in particular have become incredibly important in helping to leverage genomic data to inform precision medicine and improve patient outcomes. The complementary capabilities of this consortium offer a unique opportunity to have a disruptive impact on next generation immunotherapies and we look forward to working with our partners towards this important goal".
The HEALED consortium is one of 29 projects securing funding under the third round of the Government's Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund. The selected projects will receive a total of €95m over the next three years. So far, €235m has been allocated out of the total fund of €500m (https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/75daf-government-announce-95m-for-ground-breaking-projects-under-disruptive-technologies-fund/)
About RemedyBio
Based in Dublin, Ireland. RemedyBio is pioneering new precision immunotherapies in cancer and other complex conditions. Able to explore up to a billion individual cells and cell interactions per patient, RemedyBio’s proprietary Nanoreactor technology enables a new class of heterogeneous immune therapies tailored to an individual’s specific disease, enabling powerful, safe, and cost-effective therapeutics in a broad range of solid cancers and in other serious diseases.
About aCGT Vector DAC
aCGT Vector DAC, a specialist Cell Therapy Clinical Development and Commercial Manufacturing Organisation, are uniquely positioned to translate transformative Cell-Based precision Cancer Therapies in its innovative modular digitised near-to-patient GMP-in-a-box Cell Therapy Enabling platform.
About Trinity St James’ Cancer Institute
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin was founded in 1592. Trinity is Ireland’s highest ranked university and attracts world leading researchers and innovative companies. Trinity promotes a diverse, interdisciplinary, inclusive environment which nurtures ground-breaking research, innovation, and creativity through engaging with issues of global significance. Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI) is a Trinity Research Institute (TRI) located within the St James’s Hospital campus in Dublin 8, and brings scientists and clinicians together to develop new ways to diagnose, prevent and treat a range of pressing health concerns focusing on cancer, immunology, infection and the genomics of human disease. Additionally, the Trinity St James's Cancer Institute, builds on outstanding comprehensive cancer care delivered at St James's Hospital, with the research and educational excellence of Trinity College Dublin. Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute is the first Irish cancer institute to be accredited by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI).
