Haematological disease, either malignant or otherwise, carries a significant burden of morbidity and mortality. Recent advances in mapping and sequencing of the human genome make possible an approach to the treatment of these diseases which exploits the genetic differences between individuals to produce targets through which the immune system can eliminate the diseased cells. In practice this process of immunotherapy involves an allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant, with subsequent delivery of specific immune effector cells expanded from the donor. The AlloStem project brings together clinical and research groups from across the EU who individually are amongst the world leaders in the field of immunotherapy to coordinate and complement their efforts into a unified and directed program. We will develop new protocols for the treatment of patients with haematological disease and for the effective delivery of immunogenomics-based therapies. The end results of the project will be both an improvement in the health care for EU citizens and the development of new genome-based pharmaceuticals that can be exploited worldwide.
Keywords:
allogenetic, immunotherapy
|
