mRNA-Based Personalized Cancer Vaccines

We are applying our mRNA technology to the emerging field of immuno-oncology, also often referred to as immunotherapy. This therapeutic area involves harnessing the body’s immune system to identify and kill cancer cells in the same way the immune system identifies and targets infection from pathogens. 

Recent breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy have demonstrated that powerful antitumor responses can be achieved by activating antigen specific T cells in a variety of cancer settings. Despite these advances, many patients’ cancer responds only partially or does not respond at all to these anti-cancer therapies. One approach is to administer a cancer vaccine that encodes for peptides containing mutations found in their cancer, i.e., to create a personalized cancer vaccine composed of neoantigens unique to a patient’s tumor. Coderegenesis’s Immuno-Oncology program is currently focused on therapeutic vaccines.

Therapeutic Vaccines – CODGEN-101 Personalized Cancer Vaccines

Coderegenesis is creating individualized, mRNA-based personalized cancer vaccines to deliver one custom-tailored medicine for one patient at a time. Through next-generation sequencing, we identify mutations found on a patient’s cancer cells, called neoepitopes. Neoepitopes can help the immune system distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. Using AI algorithm developed by our in-house bioinformatics team, we predict neoepitopes present on the patient’s cancer that should elicit the strongest immune response, based on unique characteristics of the patient’s immune system and the cancer’s particular mutations. We then create a vaccine that encodes for each of these mutations and load them onto a single mRNA molecule. 

Once injected into the patient, the vaccine has the potential to direct the patient’s cells to express the selected neoepitopes. In turn, this may help the patient’s immune system better recognize cancer cells as foreign and destroy them.

Leveraging our rapid cycle time, small-batch manufacturing technique and digital infrastructure, we work to manufacture and supply each individually manufactured personalized cancer vaccine to the patient rapidly.