Immunicum has announced the initiation of a research collaboration with the laboratory of Nina Bhardwaj, Director of Immunotherapy and the Medical Director of the Vaccine and Cell Therapy Core Facility, The Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Dr. Bhardwaj is a leading researcher who has made significant contributions to the field of human dendritic cells and specifically their mode of action, states Immunicum in a press release. Her translational research has resulted in the development of receptor agonist– and dendritic cell-based vaccines for the treatment of both cancer and infectious diseases, and she has pioneered neoantigen vaccine studies at The Tisch Cancer Institute, they state.

Gain further insight

As part of the of the collaboration, Immunicum and Icahn Mount Sinai will investigate the company’s allogeneic dendritic cell therapy candidates to gain further insight on their interactions with and activation of tumor specific T cells.

“Nina Bhardwaj and her lab have advanced the understanding of dendritic cell biology and her team was one of the first to discover a way to grow specialized cross-presenting dendritic cells in the lab,” says Alex Karlsson Parra, CSO at Immunicum. “We believe that this collaboration will provide us with important further understanding of the complex interactions between our clinical candidates and a patient’s immune system.”

Photo of Alex Karlsson Parra: Immunicum