2019-06-24
A centre for development of the next generation NK cell-based immunotherapies against cancer to be built from Karolinska Institutet.
June 18 Vinnova announced its new competence centres, including a centre for development of the next generation NK cell-based immunotherapies against cancer, based at Karolinska Institutet.
This centre, run by Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, aims to drive research and collaborative efforts within the NK immunotherapy space towards development, production and implementation of these therapies for cancer treatments. Karolinska Institutet has a long history of NK cell research, from the very discovery of the cells, to the elucidation of the molecular specificity of NK cells in first murine models and then in humans, and then the development of clinical trials towards human cancer.
”The activities proposed by the competence centre build on more than four decades of NK cell research at Karolinska Institutet. With recent successes, we are now taking the next steps towards the creation of next-generation NK cell therapies”, says Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren.
The competence centre brings together universities, research institutes, companies and public stakeholders to drive research and development in the space through collaboration. This involves not only technology development but dissemination and implementation.
Each competence centre in the recent Vinnova announcement has been given between 4-8 million kronor per year over 5 years with a maximum of 36 million kronor. http://www.vinnova.se/nyheter/2019/06/satsning-pa-forskningsmiljoer-i-varldsklass/
AdBIOPRO is a currently running Vinnova competence centre for bioprocessing, towards more effective ATMP manufacture and scale up processes.
Article written by: Heather Main