NEW YORK, Feb. 17 (GenomeWeb News) - Affitech, an Oslo, Norway-based antibody discovery firm, said today that Norway's FUGE (Functional Genomics) funding program has awarded it a NOK 6.2 million ($900,000) grant to support a collaborative research project with the Norwegian Radium Hospital.
The award will fund research that Affitech and the hospital began several years ago in the area of cancer immunoproteomics. Researchers from the two organizations are working together to develop techniques to identify tumor-specific or tumor-associated antigens and antibodies.
Affitech said it plans to use human antibodies against tumor-associated antigens to directly attack tumors, while the research team at the Norwegian Radium Hospital will use tumor antigens to stimulate the T-cell dependent arm of the immune system with the goal of creating a cancer vaccine.