Genomic technology to generate a vaccine against cancer

The first meeting of the BLANCA Project (Breast and Liver ANti-Cancer Antigens), a public-private collaboration funded by the Government of Navarra in its call for Strategic R&D Projects 2021, was held on July 22. Coordinated by the Cima Universidad de Navarra, this project focuses on the use of genomic technology to generate a vaccine against cancer.
 
During the meeting, the consortium partners, belonging to Cima, Navarrabiomed, the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, the Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra, the biotechnology company BioNanoplus, the SARAY Association, ADItech, and NASERTIC, established the work plan for the next three years and defined the first actions.

The BLANCA project aims to develop vaccines for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer and the most prevalent liver cancer, hepatocarcinoma (HCC). Both are poor prognosis tumors in which there is some response to immunotherapy, but progress needs to be made in their approach.

"To find the information needed to develop the vaccine we will analyze massive data from cancer patients using cutting-edge technology. The vaccine will also be state-of-the-art and will consist of a combination of nanoparticles and RNA, very similar to some of the coronavirus vaccines. After producing the vaccine, we will validate its efficacy in animal models", explains Dr. Puri Fortes, researcher of the Gene Therapy and Regulation of Gene Expression Program at Cima, and project coordinator.