Characterizing a Cancer Immunotherapy Target with Genomic Data
CDR-Life is a biopharmaceutical company that develops novel, highly specific cancer immunotherapies. Genevia Technologies has supported the CDR-Life team in analyzing genomic data to better understand the molecular signature of their lead drug target in different cancer types. Dr. Melissa Vrohlings, the Translational Science Leader of CDR-Life, shares their experience with Genevia’s Virtual Bioinformatics Core service.
Exploring Bioinformatics Support
Based in Zurich, Switzerland, CDR-Life is developing highly targeted T cell engagers (TCE) to eliminate hard-to-treat solid tumors. CDR-Life develops bi-specific antibodies that detect cancer cells based on specific target antigens and facilitate cytotoxic T-cell-mediated destruction of the tumor. In late 2022, the CDR-Life team reached out to Genevia Technologies in search of bioinformatics support to leverage public cancer genomic data to better understand our drug target in different cancer types.
CDR-Life's collaboration with Genevia marked a significant milestone as our first in-house Phase 1 study. We were seeking bioinformatics support that would enhance our understanding of the target across various cancer types, enable us to analyze its molecular signature and research family members of the target. According to Dr. Melissa Vrohlings, the Translational Science Leader of CDR-Life, this insight would allow us to optimize patient selection for the therapy while also determining which additional therapies may be added to maximize patient benefit. Our primary focus was on mining The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data, placing particular emphasis on indications showing the highest likelihood of expressing our target.
After over a year of collaboration, Dr. Vrohlings reflects on the project with satisfaction and praises the flexibility, efficiency and predictability of the work. Outlining the plan for each month helped the CDR-Life team estimate when their analysis results would be coming in, making it easier to plan ahead and prepare requests. Moreover, when there were no additional requests, the remaining FTEs were simply transferred, and no time was lost. According to Dr. Vrohlings, "As is typical in scientific exploration, initial findings frequently resulted in new questions, steering our investigation in different directions. Genevia seamlessly navigated these pivots, maintaining productivity throughout these evolving research paths. In fact, obtaining results we didn’t anticipate led us to do a poster together at ESMO, where we used the results to present the target and more characterization around it."
Dr. Melissa Vrohlings, Translational Science Leader of CDR-Life
Dr. Maria Liivrand, Chief Research Officer of Genevia Technologies
New Ways of Thinking
Dr. Vrohlings notes that the collaboration was a great learning experience. Going through the data together with a bioinformatics expert helped to better rephrase questions and generate new ideas. She extends thanks to Genevia’s Chief Research Officer, Dr. Maria Liivrand, who worked on the project with the CDR-Life team. ”It was extremely helpful working with a bioinformatic expert like Maria. She was very flexible based on our feedback and had great ideas about how results could be visualized to make them easier to interpret. We definitely learned a lot through the data and gained a better understanding of the characteristics of the respective indications. While we hit a certain limit with the TCGA data for this project, we clearly saw the benefit of understanding more about what kind of patients we are treating in terms of the molecular signature. It helps prepare the trial ahead, and can also inform about potential future combinations of therapies,” said Dr. Vrohlings. ”.
”The amount of knowledge you can gain with the help of bioinformatics is enormous,even in very well-explored data sets such as the TCGA. This collaboration certainly led to new insights for the project and enabled us to further refine the project strategy. Overall, the interaction with Genevia was very smooth, and I would definitely recommend them to others”.
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