The University of Connecticut and CaroGen Corp., an emerging immunotherapy company doing research in UConn’s Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington, said this week they are collaborating on developing a vaccine to potentially treat and cure colon cancer.
CaroGen’s proprietary technology will be applied to a specific target studied by UConn Health’s Kepeng Wang, assistant professor of immunology. CaroGen will provide a $70,000 grant to Wang and his collaborator at UConn Health, Anthony T. Vella, professor and Boehringer Ingelheim chair in immunology, who will aid in the development of this platform.
CaroGen’s platform is a transformative virus-like vesicle (VLV) technology developed at Yale University School of Medicine and exclusively licensed by CaroGen for the development and commercialization of immunotherapies worldwide, according to a news release from UConn’s Office for the Vice President of Research.
The company is developing a portfolio of immunotherapies with a lead program in chronic hepatitis B viral infection in collaboration with Professor John Rose of Yale University School of Medicine and Michael Robek of Albany Medical College.
Colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States for men and women. Colon and rectal cancer deaths increase with age and are highest among people 75 to 84.
CaroGen is also working on the development of VLV immunotherapies against C. difficile bacterial infection in collaboration with UConn Health researcher Kamal Khanna, assistant professor of immunology, and a vaccine against Zika with UConn researcher Dr. Paulo Verardi, associate professor of pathology.
