Dr. Daniel De Carvalho’s laboratory at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre has commenced a collaborative drug discovery research program with Pfizer’s Center for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI). The collaboration will leverage Dr. De Carvalho’s expertise in immunotherapy and aims to screen, identify and optimize potential drug candidates that trigger the body’s own immune system to kill cancer cells.
This research collaboration will match Pfizer’s drug discovery expertise with novel mechanisms of disarming cancer cells against the body’s own immune response by mimicking a viral infection to the cancer cells, which was previously identified by a team of researchers led by Dr. De Carvalho.
“Our prior work provides an exciting foundation for drug development efforts and could lead to the development of a completely new class of drugs that are able to exploit the body’s own genome against cancer,” says Dr. De Carvalho.
UHN’s Technology Development and Commercialization office helped facilitate the collaboration.
“We are thrilled to enter into this new collaboration with Pfizer,” says Mark Taylor, Director, Technology Development and Commercialization at UHN. “This new relationship pairs Dr. De Carvalho’ s deep know-how with Pfizer’s drug-discovery engine, to accelerate the possibility of a new treatment to patients, sooner,” he said. “Our collaboration with Pfizer illustrates our commitment to research partnerships that allow access to the latest technology to enrich possibilities for patients world-wide.”