Iscaffpharma and collaborators receive funding for Eurostars project with a total budget of 1.24 M€

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Gothenburg University, RISE and Iscaffpharma received the prestigious grant support and are partnering with AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN), for a project to develop synthetic 3D-models that recapitulate the tumour microenvironment for cancer drug discovery.

The project has been assessed by Eureka in strong competition with other applications from all over Europe. The research project proposed by the consortium received excellent ratings by Eureka, in regards to technological uniqueness and potential future application in cancer drug development.

• “We are proud that our technology has received acknowledgement from Eurostars and it shows the high innovation and market potential for our technology mimicking human cancer microenvironment. Our synthetic scaffolds have the possibility to dramatically change how preclinical research in cancer is made in the future.” says Per Setterberg, CEO Iscaffpharma

The purpose of the project is to deliver novel synthetic 3D-growth models for cancer drug discovery and optimization based on unique information obtained from studies of patient derived scaffolds (PDS) from primary cancer samples. Sets of defined inks will be developed and formed into 3D-structures mimicking typical primary cancer microenvironments and used for optimization of cancer therapies with an initial focus on CAR-T cells targeting various cancer subtypes. The 3D-models will provide information about cancer cell type, specific killing of cancer cell lines and organoids as well as infiltration capacities of various types of CAR-T cells in proper human-like microenvironmental contexts.

The project will run over a period of 2 years starting in February 2023

• “The human cancer microenvironment indeed influences aggressive features in cancer and our research using patient derived and synthetic scaffolds show that this pioneering technique can be essential in many activities in cancer research and development. The technology can also be used for identifying novel cancer drug targets as well be part of the important screening and validation processes of candidate drugs. In the end patients will benefit from better cancer drugs but also from the fact that we in the future can individualize each patient treatment by including analyses of the cancer microenvironment.” says Professor Göran Landberg, Sahlgrenska Center for Cancer Research, University of Gothenburg

For more information please contact:

Per Setterberg CEO Iscaffpharma

Telephone: +46 702159928

E-mail: per.setterberg@iscaffpharma.com

About Iscaffpharma

Iscaffpharma is a biotech company focusing on the development of effective treatments for aggressive cancers. The company is a spin-out from the University of Gothenburg and is based on the research by professor Göran Landberg and Professor Anders Ståhlberg at Sahlgrenska Center for Cancer Research.

The technology has been developed into a cost-efficient platform to improve the success rate in pre-clinical development of treatments for aggressive cancer. The platform uses patient derived scaffolds created from human tumor samples and synthetic replicas that can validate the efficiency of a drug and give high quality data supporting what drugs should be pushed forward in to clinical trials. The technology is also used for target finding and evaluation, the discovery of new molecules and to individualize treatment for patients suffering from cancer.

Read more here www.iscaffpharma.com