# SBIR INNOVATIVE CONCEPT AWARD - DETECTION, DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, PREVENTION AND RESEARCH OF PEDIATRIC CANCERS AND/OR RARE CANCERS

> **NIH NIH N43** · IMMUNOTARGET THERAPEUTICS, INC. · 2022 · $355,000

## Abstract

Immunotherapies harness the body’s own natural defenses to fight cancer and can lead to durable
responses in some patients, but clinical benefit has remained limited. Therapeutic vaccines derived from
whole tumor lysates are a promising treatment strategy that ares well tolerated and have shown promising
results in early clinical trials, stimulating neoantigen-specific immune responses in a subset of patients. Yet
the majority of patients are poorly responsive to vaccine treatment, underscoring the need to devise
improved strategies for stimulating anti-tumor activity, and thereby preventing tumor escape. To induce
robust cellular immunity against esophageal cancer, a rare but particularly aggressive malignancy that leads
to significant morbidity and mortality in the US, our strategy is to optimally prime neoantigen-reactive T cells
from individual patients with esophageal cancer. We propose an innovative priming method to induce
neoantigens in tumor cells prior to lysate generation, thereby enhancing the immunogenicity of each vaccine
preparation, and test efficacy and specificity in vitro. Finally, we will test in vivo efficacy of our therapeutic
preparation using a mouse model of esophageal cancer. Our goal is to advance novel approaches to
effectively mobilize anti-tumor immunity, improve therapeutic vaccine efficacy and overcome
immunotherapeutic resistance in esophageal cancer.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10586902
- **Project number:** 75N91022C00004-0-9999-1
- **Recipient organization:** IMMUNOTARGET THERAPEUTICS, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHANIE HACHEY
- **Activity code:** N43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $355,000
- **Award type:** —
- **Project period:** 2022-02-02 → 2023-02-01

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10586902

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10586902, SBIR INNOVATIVE CONCEPT AWARD - DETECTION, DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, PREVENTION AND RESEARCH OF PEDIATRIC CANCERS AND/OR RARE CANCERS (75N91022C00004-0-9999-1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10586902. Licensed CC0.

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