DC4U BV

Brief description
DC4U BV is a spin-off company of the VU University medical center (VUmc). DC4U is focused on developing products that enable targeting of tumor vaccines to dendritic cells (DC), the master
regulators of the immune system. DC4U BV is hosted at the Department of Cell Biology and Immunology of the VUmc.

Problem in the market
DC are powerful immune cells, capable of inducing effective anti-tumor responses in cancer patients. At the present time, however, ex-vivo tumor loaded DC made from patients’ own blood are used in the clinic, and this approach is difficult to standardize and poses tremendous logistic problems. The DC targeting technology platform exploited by DC4U is based on unique and proprietary glycan technologies developed. These enable the design of innovative vaccines for in-vivo DC therapy of inflammatory diseases and cancer, and target these vaccines directly to the DC in the body.

How does DC4U address the problem? 
DC4U has entered a vaccine development program to design and test in-vivo strategies for DC activation directly in patients’ skin or lymph nodes. It s developing glycol-liposomes that can be used for preclinical assessments. At the same time the company is developing new strategies to transfer its knowledge into the clinic. Candidate vaccines are being prepared for pre-clinical testing in ex vivo human skin explants models.