NEW YORK – OncoDNA and myNEO said on Wednesday that they have partnered to develop personalized, mRNA-based vaccines to treat advanced cancer patients.
Within the collaboration, the Belgium-based companies will use their respective technologies —OncoDNA's whole-genome and whole-transcriptome sequencing capabilities, and myNEO's artificial intelligence and bioinformatics capabilities — to identify targetable neoantigens in individual cancer patients and design mRNA-based vaccines that instruct their immune systems to go after those targets.
Additionally, OncoDNA plans to use its blood-based next-generation sequencing test, OncoFOLLOW, to monitor patients' circulating tumor DNA after treatment with the bespoke vaccines.
"It may take years before this technology becomes a reality," Jean-Pol Detiffe, OncoDNA's founder and chief strategy and innovation officer, said in a statement. "However, the ongoing pilot tests on patients who do not respond to any therapy are showing promising results."