“The targets we’ve chosen for the vaccine were chosen based on their sharedness across multiple cancer types in Lynch syndrome, so we think they should provide broad protection, if the vaccine works.”
Regarding vaccinating against other cancers not caused by Lynch syndrome, Prof Church said “in terms of proof of principle that we can train the immune system to recognise these cancer-associated alterations and enhance the immune response against them to prevent these pre-cancers or prevent the progression of pre-cancer to cancer, that proof of principle should give us insights that are generalisable.”
David Berman, chief development officer at Moderna, said: “By applying mRNA technology earlier in the patient journey, we aim to harness the immune system when it can have the greatest impact. We are proud to bring this innovation to the UK, building on our long-standing collaboration with leading UK institutions to advance mRNA research and development.”
