British pharma giant GSK is heading back to school, pledging up to 50 million pounds sterling (about $62.4 million) to work with the University of Oxford on a cancer vaccine research program.
The funds will be used to form the GSK-Oxford Cancer Immuno-Prevention Programme, the partners announced in a Jan. 27 release, which will support research into precancer biology and methods to prevent cells from becoming cancerous.
The partnership will last a minimum of three years, with GSK leveraging Oxford’s expertise in the identification and sequencing of tumor-specific proteins that the immune system can target. Finding these proteins, called neoantigens, could enable the development of vaccines that train the immune system to seek and destroy mutated cells before they progress to cancer.
GSK’s research relationship with the English university started back in 2021, when the partners teamed up to launch a new molecular and computational medicine institute. That collaboration formed on the back of a five-year, $40 million investment from GSK and focuses on neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.
The Big Pharma hasn’t limited its coffers to just Oxford. The University of Cambridge snagged a five-year, $65 million commitment from GSK late last year to pursue immune-related respiratory and kidney diseases.