Touchlight’s Doggybone™ DNA technology enables first UK patient dosing

Touchlight, the UK-based, market-leading cell-free DNA provider, today marked a significant milestone in personalised cancer treatment as the first UK patient was dosed with a bespoke cancer vaccine manufactured using its proprietary dbDNA technology — in a pioneering early-stage trial for the most common type of lung cancer.

The patient, who is being treated at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC), is the first person in the UK to be given the vaccine, which is designed to match the unique genetic changes found in their tumour. The patient’s advanced lung cancer has only partially responded to standard immunotherapy, and it is hoped the vaccine will ‘boost’ their immune system to recognise tumour cells, seek them out in the body and attack them — with the aim to reduce or eliminate the tumour. Clinicians and researchers at CCC and the University of Liverpool are studying the personalised vaccine in the early-stage NEOVACC clinical trial.

At the heart of the project is Touchlight’s innovative cell-free method of manufacturing DNA, known as dbDNA. Part of Touchlight’s portfolio of proprietary DNA manufacturing solutions, the platform uses enzymes to amplify DNA efficiently through a streamlined, cell-free process, simplifying production and shortening development timelines, allowing researchers to produce personalised vaccine components rapidly and at a lower cost than more traditional approaches.

CCC researchers believe the inclusion of dbDNA technology will play an important role in making personalised cancer vaccines capable of delivery at scale, with the collaboration between CCC and Touchlight providing an important clinical opportunity to demonstrate these benefits.

The NEOVACC Phase I trial will involve 10 participants with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Its main aims are to assess safety and to look for early signs of the personalised vaccine triggering an immune response against this common cancer. In the UK, around 50,000 people are diagnosed with this type of cancer each year, with two million cases globally, making it the third most prevalent cancer in the world.

The trial brings together experts from many disciplines — including cancer doctors, immunologists, genetic scientists, clinical trial specialists, NHS teams and industry partners — underpinned by a £2.66m grant from the Medical Research Council’s Development Pathway Funding Scheme. It is led by Professor Christian Ottensmeier, CCC Consultant Oncologist and Chief Investigator, and Professor Natalia Savelyeva, both of whom are part of the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology.

Dr Jill Makin, Chief Scientific Officer at Touchlight, said:

We are very excited to work with Profs Ottensmeier and Savelyeva. The doggybone DNA technology provides an ideal means to deliver rapid individual personalised vaccines to this large group of patients with an unmet clinical need and other patients with solid cancers.

Chief Investigator Professor Christian Ottensmeier said:

We are excited to be using Touchlight’s ‘doggybone DNA’ (dbDNA) technology in the creation of this vaccine, which has the potential to be a gamechanger in reducing the speed and cost of production of these important therapies. In essence it’s making impossible timelines with traditional plasmid now possible. This personalised approach could offer hope to those for whom standard immunotherapy has not fully worked, by helping the immune system recognise and fight the parts of the tumour that have previously evaded detection. I hope this research will contribute to new ways of thinking about cancer vaccine use in advanced lung cancer.

Professor Natalia Savelyeva said:

It is a very exciting study because, if successful, this strategy could benefit more than half of patients with advanced lung cancer, and possibly those with other types of cancer as well.

The patient said:

The trials team said I was an ideal candidate for this study, so I didn’t hesitate when they asked if I wanted to take part. If there was a possibility of me surviving longer, I was happy to be involved with it, and if there is a chance of it helping other people in the future, then that was even better.