Laboratory immunotherapy study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Laboratory study observing interactions of new immunotherapies with human blood components.
IRAS ID
272982
Contact name
Margaret Duffy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Theolytics Ltd.
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 29 days
Research summary
Research scientists in our laboratory are developing new immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Animals are not suitable to determine if these new agents are suitable for human use. In this project, we will be using small amounts of blood, either surplus materials from the NHS blood service (NHS Blood and Transplant; NHSBT) or from other suppliers such as Cambridge Bioscience. We will look at how immune stimulants or immunotherapies interact with blood cells and plasma components. In some cases, blood components may inhibit or block the interactions of our immunotherapy and we would like to characterise and overcome this inhibition. We can also observe pro-inflammatory effects on the cells to see if our new agents are likely to be well tolerated or not. The type of immunotherapy we are focussed on is called virotherapy, where we use selective virus-based vaccine to lyse cancer cells. However, we will also use existing therapies that have been used in the clinic before, so we can put our results into context of previous experience. Our results will be useful to the scientific community and we intend to publish them for the benefit of others.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0382
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jan 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion