Cancer immunotherapy has become an increasingly important therapeutic approach in oncology. It is defined as a means to activate a patient’s own immune system to recognize and respond to a developing tumor.
Our goal is to develop dendritic cell-based vaccines. DCs are the “gatekeepers” of our immune system, and they can have the capacity to activate other immune cells to attack cancers. Kanyr Pharma has developed a technology called ImmunyrTM that can improve the function of the dendritic cells in culture prior to reinjection into the patients. Kanyr Pharma currently produces these dendritic cells in plastic containers that are not completely closed. Liquids are introduced into the containers manually through caps and lids. For clinical production of the dendritic cells, it would be safer to culture the cells in closed plastic vessels such as bags filled through tubing. This would help move dendritic cell based cancer vaccines into most university hospitals, reduce cost and secure quality control of the autologous dendritic cells produced for each patient. The main objective of this project is to study the effect of the transition to closed plastic vessels and different plastic materials on the function of dendritic cells obtained in the presence of ImmunyrTM.