Grant: Operating Grant: Industry-partnered Collaborative Research

Cancer is the leading disease-associated cause of death in Canada, with the majority of these deaths resulting from recurrent, metastatic or widespread lesions. New therapies are needed, with greater potency yet fewer side effects than conventional treatments. Oncolytic viruses (OV) are a novel therapeutic platform which answers this call; they preferentially infect and lyse cancer cells in a highly selective manner, they have an excellent safety profile, and they attack the cancer in multiple ways. Jennerex Biotherapeutics is a world leader in the development of oncolytic virus therapeutics. We currently have a lead product, JX 594 in late stage clinical trials and have successfully partnered this product with a French Biotherapeutics company, Transgene. Having a robust pipeline of novel oncolytic virus products is key to the growth and evolution of Jennerex. The goal of this proposal is to develop of our next generation oncolytic virus (OV) product. Specifically, this proposal builds upon our pre-clinical and clinical findings to date and will direct the rational design of a new OV, by evaluating the inherent anti-tumor activity of different vaccinia virus strains, in order to identify the strain best suited for building a superior therepeutic agent. In addition, we plan to test new strategies for enhancing virus potency against cancer cells, optimizing intravenous delivery of our therapeutic virus, while maintaining safety for the patient.