Immuno-Oncology

Our Labex is participating in four major activities, namely, (i) scientific research, (ii) drug development, (iii) biomarker discovery, and (iv) clinical implementation/education. For the sake of brevity only the most spectacular realizations will be mentioned.

Scientific research: Our Labex is a major success, spearheading and accompanying the revolution that has transformed oncology into oncoimmunology. This has been possible due to the capacity of the Labex to harmoniously integrate into a vaster local, French and European ecosystem.

Drug development: The screening platform allowed for the identification of new immunogenic cell death (ICD) inducers. One successful example is lurbinectedin that we found to induce ICD in 2019 and that was FDA approved for the treatment of small cell lung cancer in June 2020. A second example is the ICD-inducing anti-BCMA antibody that was FDA approved in August 2020 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The lytic peptide LTX-315, the immunostimulatory metabolite alpha-ketoglutarate and the immunomodulatory bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila have entered clinical trials. Our Labex is contributing to drug development via the creation of multiple spin-off start-ups: everImmune, Methys Dx, Osasuna Therapeutics, Samsara Therapeutics, Osasuna Therapeutics, TheraFast Bio.

Biomarker discovery: One spin-off of our Labex, HalioDX, has established the Immunoscore ® as a prognostic biomarker in cancer therapy.

Clinical implementation/education. The Labex has created a variety of instruments including an international scientific organization (EATI) as well as a specialized scientific journal (OncoImmunology), which now publishes more papers in the specific field than any other journal.