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R&D offer: Immunotherapy
Institut Curie's long-standing commitment to immunology and immuno-oncology has created a strong momentum for the development of collaborative, interdisciplinary programs.
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Immunotherapy, a revolution in cancer treatment
A major advance in cancer research, immunotherapy aims to stimulate the patient's own immune defenses against the disease. Unlike targeted therapies and conventional chemotherapies, which attack tumour cells directly, this treatment teaches the immune system to recognize and destroy them, just as it does bacteria and viruses.
A veritable revolution in cancer treatment, immunotherapy has been one of Institut Curie's flagship areas of research for several decades. Researchers and doctors are exploring numerous avenues to better understand how cancer cells evade the body's defenses, and how to trigger an effective immune response against different types of cancer.
Institut Curie's research and medical teams are committed to furthering knowledge in this field, in order to develop new drugs, learn how to use them more effectively, and combine them with other treatments for the benefit of patients.
A center for cancer immunotherapy
In 2018, Institut Curie inaugurated France's first cancer immunotherapy center. True to the model imagined by Marie Curie in 1909, Institut Curie brings together researchers, doctors, patients and caregivers in a single location. The aim is to strengthen interactions between research and care, foster medical innovation and accelerate the availability of new treatments for patients.
Located at the heart of Institut Curie's Paris site, it brings together fundamental and translational research laboratories, consultation rooms and hospital beds on the same floor, creating a unique space for exchanges between researchers, doctors, patients and carers.
More specifically, the Cancer Immunotherapy Center aims to:
- Set up early trials and study treatment combinations that could improve therapeutic efficacy.
- Discover new predictive biomarkers.
- Understand why the results of immunotherapy for breast cancer are less conclusive, whereas they are more conclusive for tumors in other sites.
With a view to scientific and medical innovation, this grouping of key players fosters interaction and knowledge transfer, accelerating the transformation of fundamental discoveries into clinical applications. Sharing experience and bringing doctors and researchers together enables the emergence of relevant medical and scientific questions, in the service of the fight against cancer.
CellAction: a platform to accelerate innovation and access to cell and gene therapies
Cell and gene therapies, and in particular CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor) cells, are booming in the treatment of cancer. They are at the heart of CellAction (Cell therapy Acceleration and Innovation), the Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster (PSCC) platform at Institut Curie.
Unprecedented in France, CellAction is a high-performance, integrated structure that brings together highly qualified scientific, clinical and technical expertise and cutting-edge equipment in a single location. Through public-private collaborations, the structure aims to accelerate the development of innovative anti-cancer drugs, from basic research through to transfer to the clinic and to patients.
Key information:
- Nearly 6 million euros worth of state-of-the-art, high-performance equipment, unique in France
- Available on the platform: spectrometer, latest-generation spectral cytometry equipment, equipment for single-cell analysis, semi-automated closed system that manufactures modified cells (CliniMacs® Prodigy [Miltenyi]) combined with an electroporator (Miltenyi)...
- 1 piece of equipment* unique in France: a cutting-edge instrument that measures avidity between immune cells and their targets (Z-Movi (Lumicks®)
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