KWF Dutch Cancer Society will invest almost 1 million euros in a promising and innovative research project with Ruchi Bansal, Adjunct Professor at the TechMed Centre at the University of Twente as the project leader. In the project, Prof. Bansal will be investigating a new immunotherapy for liver cancer treatment that targets a different type of immune cells than usual.
Current immunotherapies mainly target a specific type of immune cells called T-cells. These immune cells can recognise and attack cancer cells. Besides T-cells, the immune system also has B-cells. These immune cells make antibodies that bind to unwanted invaders such as cancer cells. Immunotherapy targeting B-cells is still relatively unknown territory. In this project, researchers investigate these B-cell-based immunotherapies for liver cancer treatment. Prof. Bansal will collaborate with Erasmus MC and Amsterdam UMC in this project.
Public-private partnership
In total, KWF allocates EUR 3 million for 5 promising research projects in which scientific researchers collaborate with companies. KWF is funding the academic part of the collaborations. The private part of the project comes from the companies VyCAP BV and Kling Biotherapeutics.
The 5 innovative collaboration projects are funded by the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) grant that Health~Holland, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health, allocates to KWF to stimulate public-private collaborations.
About the researcher
Ruchi Bansal is an Adjunct Professor leading Personalised Diagnostics and Therapeutics team in the Applied Stem Cell Technologies research group (AST; TechMed Centre / Faculty of S&T). Her research focuses on understanding and treating liver diseases. Bansal is also one of the featured scientists at the University of Twente.
