NeoPhore signs research collaboration with Institute of Cancer Research

Small molecule neoantigen immuno-oncology company NeoPhore has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Professor Chris Lord’s lab at The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Professor Lord is Professor of Cancer Genomics and Deputy Head of the Division of Breast Cancer Research at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), as well as the Deputy Leader of the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre and the Cancer Research UK Gene Function Team at the ICR.

The collaboration will use NeoPhore’s proprietary small molecule inhibitors of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) to investigate single agent activity against tumours with defined genetic backgrounds.

NeoPhore is developing a pipeline targeting novel proteins in the DNA mismatch repair pathway to treat cancer.

Its first-in-class MMR modulators induce neoantigen expression and increase immunogenicity in solid tumours that become exquisitely sensitive to immunotherapy.

Professor Chris Lor said:

“We are excited about this new collaboration with NeoPhore.

“Identifying new ways of treating cancer is central to much of what we do here at the ICR and this project will focus on exactly that.

“Our hope is that by working with NeoPhore, we can find new vulnerabilities in cancer cells that can be targeted by drugs that NeoPhore has discovered.”

This is the forth collaboration agreement NeoPhore has signed since 2017, having entered collaborations with University of Turin, St George’s University of London and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

NeoPhore CEO, Dr Matthew Baker, said:

“We are excited to collaborate with Prof. Chris Lord who is a prominent and respected researcher in the field.

“Access to his team’s scientific expertise will allow us to investigate new mechanisms of action of the MMR pathway in a variety of solid tumours.

“We believe that this impactful collaboration has the potential to broaden the use of MMR inhibitors beyond neoantigen generation.

“Ultimately the results of the collaboration have the potential to provide significant patient benefit in a variety of solid tumour indications.”