An adaptive vaccine platform to prevent/interrupt the carcinogenesis in risk groups with precursor lesions of the pancreas

• Applicant: Dr. Viktoria Böker
• Subject Area: General and Visceral Surgery
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 530365082

The project aims to generate exosomes containing mRNA vaccines (ExoN-Vax) as cargos that target specific neoantigens of laboratory animals and patients with pancreatic diseases. Cancer development should be interrupted in risk cohorts with precursor lesions of the pancreas. Relating to the principle of cancer interception. The efficacy of the (ExoN-Vax) is tested in preclinic and clinical studies. The mRNA Cargos of the exosomes target mutated neoantigens of patients and laboratory animals containing cystic lesions (IPMNs) of the pancreas. In summary, the most important working hypotheses are: 1) Establishing an exosome-based platform for clinical use which are loaded with personalized mRNAs. 2) The generated ExoN-Vax will be tested in preclinical autochthonous mouse models 3) and in a clinical study of chosen risk group patients.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. Raghu Kalluri