CancerRop, which specializes in genetic analysis and molecular diagnostics, said Thursday that it signed a 3 billion won ($2.55-million) contract with COREE Company to collaborate in immune cell profiling to establish data for developing vaccines.
Under the accord, CancerRop will also cooperate with Oxford Vacmedix, a company spun off from Oxford University in 2012, to conduct studies on immune cell profiling analysis in Korea and the U.K.
"We signed the agreement because we highly evaluated CancerRop's genomic analysis capabilities and Oxford Vacmedix's experience and technology in immune cell research," COREE Company CEO Park Sang-tae said. "The study will divide participants into four groups – the infected, uninfected, vaccinated, and those with side effects -- and conduct immune cell profiling, aiming to draw at least 10,000 analyses for three years from 2022."
CancerRop has four pipelines of cancer vaccines underway based on its recombinant overlapping peptides (ROP). ROP enhances the cellular immune system by recombining the peptide that stimulates the anticancer virus gene and injecting it into the body. It is regarded as next-generation technology to reduce the side effects of existing anticancer virus treatments and provide personalized immunotherapy.
The company will comprehensively conduct various analyses related to white blood cells, especially T cells, based on the planned study.
CancerRop expects to have a chance to analyze genotype-phenotype correlation through various clinical data collected by its sister medical institution Myongji Hospital, designated by the government as a medical facility for Covid-19, treating Covid-19 patients and tracking records of people after vaccination.
"Immune cell profiling is a very important part of vaccine development and personalized vaccination and treatment, and therefore, various related studies are going on globally," CancerRop's Senior Managing Director Park Sang-jin said.
Park went on to say, “Based on big data built through this study, we plan to develop a more effective vaccine with fewer side-effects by identifying individual's infection susceptibility of new and variant infectious diseases to prepare for post-pandemic situations."