IBA GmbH announces its engagement in the research project “Melvax” to monitor immunotherapy of melanoma
IBA GmbH announced its new R&D project “Melvax”. Melvax´s prime focus is the development of new tools to monitor immunotherapy of melanoma. Caused by exaggerated UV-exposure the incidence of melanoma has increased in the recent years. According to a WHO Report about 48,000 melanoma related deaths occur worldwide per year.
Melvax which started in 2009 is a cooperation of IBA GmbH with different European partners from academia and industry. In the Melvax project tools will be developed for monitoring the response of vaccine-induced antigen-specific T-cell populations. IBA´s proprietary Streptamer® TAGnology provides an ideal basis for this task since it allows the reversible staining and isolation of functional, authentic and epitope-specific T-cells. Moreover, Streptamers are not only available for research but also for clinical studies.
In cooperation with STAGE Cell Therapeutics the successful adoptive T-cell therapy of several CMV-infected patients has been performed. “With the Melvax project we are able to combine the use of the Streptamers with an important diagnostic application” explained Dr. Joachim Bertram, CSO of IBA GmbH. For that purpose the project´s participants can rely on IBA´s proprietary Streptamer stock products as well as on its custom service which provides tailor-made MHC I-Strep antigens.
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