Cancer Vaccine Center

• Overview
• Process
• Programs
• Core Facilities
• Tools

Vaccine Research Core Facilities

In order to accelerate the pace of scientific and clinical progress, create new intellectual property, and facilitate collaboration, the CVC provides expertise, assistance and service in areas critical to the development of successful cancer vaccines.

A unique infrastructure of key technologies, core facilities and services facilitate CVC research and clinical efforts to develop new vaccines.

Capabilities:

MoreBioinformatics:

Screening of pathogens
Discovery and analysis of cancer antigens
Screening for targets of immune responses
Prediction of binding peptides
Sequence analysis and manipulation
Structure analysis

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MoreNanotechnologies:

Nanoparticles
Vaccine formulation
Delivery systems
Optimization

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MoreMass Spectrometry:

Highly sensitive identification of dendritic cell peptides
New data mining techniques from rapidi dentification of peptides from sequenced patient samples
Identification of potential tumor T cell epitopes, tumor biomarkers

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MoreStructural Biology:

Targets identified for antibody generation through:
x-ray crystallography
electron paramagnetic resonance
NMR spectroscopy.

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MoreImmune Assessment:

Molecular assays measure vaccine-induced immunity in patients:
T Cell specificity and function
Antigen presentation specificity and function
Cytokine profiling
Immune regulatory cell function

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MoreImmunoproteomics:

Mass spectrometry
Protein arrrays

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MoreImmunogenomics:

DNA-chip technology
Large-scale sequencing of transcribed sequences

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Vaccine Research Technology:

New technologies of structural biology, mass spectrometry, bioinformatics, cell manipulation and identification of systems-wide targets of both B cell and T cell immunity are used for rational design and rapid development of effective cancer vaccines and immunotherapeutics. Vaccine formulations use adjuvants such as CpG, CTLA-4 blockade, and cytokines such as GM-CSF, markedly enhancing vaccine efficacy.

CVC Technologies Include:

• Screening
  (Genomics, Proteoarrays, MS/MS Proteomics)
• Knowledge Filter
  (Bioinformatics, Structural Biology)
• Molecular/Cellular Methods
  (Target Validation, Cytokine Profiling)
• Immune Assessment Profiling
  (Tumor, Patient, Target Matching, Design, Production)
• Assessment
  (Nanoparticles, Vaccine Manufacture, Pre-clinical, Clinical Trials)

New methods that use humanized monoclonal antibodies and harness T cell immunity through vaccination or adoptive cellular therapy are now being tested in our human clinical trials. Systematic assessment and monitoring indicate tumor responses to vaccines against breast cancer, colon cancer, leukemia and lymphoma, lung cancer, melanoma, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer, with limited toxicity to patients.