Grant: Project Grant

Oncolytic virotherapy has emerged as a promising anti-cancer therapeutic in recent years. Through their replication, oncolytic viruses directly kill cancer cells and can also induce anti-tumour immune responses to kill uninfected cancer cells. Optimally designed oncolytic viruses do this without causing damage to normal tissues, indicating considerable potential for cancer treatment. However, biosafety concerns remain, including the possibility of uncontrolled virus replication and off-target effects in immunocompromised cancer patients. The goal of this project is to create novel safety switches for use in oncolytic virotherapy to achieve more effective and safer therapeutics. We will use synthetic biology approaches to develop novel genetic control elements we call safety switches. These will control virus replication and expression of their genetic payloads which are designed to enhance anti-tumor immunity.