Member Info for RayPointer

Yes, it's good news for the UK. Let's hope this is the start of getting back to normal.
It also means that possibly cancer trials will start to get back to normal. So, hopefully its good news for Scancell.

As for Covidity, we have to wait and see how well it performs once the delivery method is tested.
There are good indications that it should perform very well from the data we have been shown so far.
As I understand it, the government money includes running a phase1 trial. So it looks like Scancell is committed to go this far at least

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/SCLP/funds-awarded-by-innovate-uk-for-covid-19-vaccine-1wibac8ii81x7dn.html

"The funding will be used to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial ("COVIDITY") during 2021."

Matthew has obviously been holding Scancell since biblical times :-)

Matthew 25:29

The bible according to google

We could get news that the Covidity delivery is working.
I seem to remember that the original SCIB2 delivery method warranted an RNS when it was decided.
To me, this is a major milestone for Immunobody as a whole.
Also, I don't know if Lindy is planning to publish any pre-clinical data for Covidity. Maybe she is waiting for testing of the delivery. We did get a taste of the pre-clinical data in the AGM presentation.
The Avidimab enhancement certainly looks that it improves both antibody and TCell responses
See slides 24-28
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/docspres/scancell-agm-2020_final.pdf

FG129 is also in the running for news IMO. See slide 23 of the same presentation. This shows use as a drug delivery method.
It looks exciting to me and it looks from the 2 graphs on this slide that it works.
See
https://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/19/3/790?rss=1
So Lindy and her team are probably building on the research already carried out. Watch this space.

Thanks for that Bermuda.

Its worth looking at the original press release

http://commercial.cancerresearchuk.org/scancell-and-cancer-research-uk-collaborate-advance-novel-cancer-immunotherapy-clinical-trials?_ga=2.262163659.676687780.1606826183-344149261.1604832919

"Scancell’s ImmunoBody® immunotherapy platform activates the body’s immune system by enhancing the uptake and presentation of cancer antigens to help target and eliminate cancer cells. SCIB2, Scancell’s second ImmunoBody® therapy, targets an antigen called NY-ESO-1, which is expressed on a range of solid tumours, including NSCLC and oesophageal, ovarian, bladder and prostate cancers, as well as neuroblastoma, melanoma and sarcoma."

Although this study will be on NSCLC initially, if successful it could also be trialled on the other cancers mentioned.
I just hope that whoever runs the trial, it will be with Immunobody+++

+ wider range of HLA types
+ Avidimab included
+ peptide based delivery method developed for Covidity

Thanks shareguard. This is actually the same breakthrough that I posted earlier but in more detail.
Having a protein mapped in 3 dimensions must make finding targets so much easier.
As you can see from the picture in this article proteins fold themselves up into very complex structures.

This is a Scancell article talking about the chain of events that a moditope vaccine is designed to exploit.

https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/publications/papers/autophagy-citrullination-and-cancer-2016.pdf

It appears that protein unfolding is an important part of the whole process.

"Damaged cells activate PADI enzymes, which convert arginines to citrullines,
thereby, changing charge and leading to unfolding of proteins."

This protein unfolding presumably makes it easier for TCells generated by a moditope vaccine to attach to their target.
The target is more exposed.

But it is interesting that both hedge funds were founded and are still managed by Englishmen.
Perhaps these founders see rich pickings that are overlooked by European investment companies. Redmile's investment in Biontech is another example.
It has been said before that US biotech companies are much better financed when compared to their European counterparts.
So, they do scientific due diligence and in both cases (Vulpes and Redmile) they seem to have come to the same conclusion i.e. Scancell have great science and it is lack of finance that is holding Scancell back.

Personally, I don't care where the money comes from as long as the providers of the finance genuinely want to give Scancell the opportunity to prove their true worth.

Afternoon LL.
I think Lindy did say in one of her presentations that proteins that are rigid and in a spiral shape give rise to the best targets.
Proteins that are prone to folding are much less likely to present good targets.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2261156-deepminds-ai-biologist-can-decipher-secrets-of-the-machinery-of-life/?utm_campaign=onesignal&utm_medium=alert&utm_source=editorial

"This will completely change the face of medicine,” says Lupas. For instance, AlphaFold was able to predict the shapes of several coronavirus proteins soon after the virus was first sequenced in January, he says. Even better would be to have the ability to predict which of the thousands of existing drugs bind to these proteins and might have a therapeutic effect, without having to do expensive experiments."

I am willing to bet that Lindy would be interested in this research.

Yes, I agree Ruck. I was just trying to allay hopespring's fears that Redmile are out to take over the company by making a low-ball offer. The same fear that NXC expressed over on the other board.
A sell out for billions to a big pharma would be wonderful :-)

hopesprings

It might be worth your while in looking back through Bermudashort's posts on the subject of Redmile.
The research by Bermuda tends to indicate that Redmile are not in the business of selling out to big pharma. It seems their objective is more about making sure that small companies like Scancell have enough capital to come close to their full potential. So it's a Win-Win if the promising science produces results to match.

I would also say that the Modi1 trial is more likely than the SCIB1 trial to be allowed to proceed in these strange times. As I understand it, Modi1 is aimed at patients for whom, sadly, there are few treatment options remaining.
Recruitment should be quicker because of the reason I stated above and also because there are 4 targeted cancers.
So, if the remaining pre-clinical obstacles are overcome, I am reasonably optimistic that this trial gets underway as planned.
There may also be some flexibility in choosing centres that are not overwhelmed with Covid cases.

Charlie Weller was the lady who played a brief part in the Sky TV piece on the Scancell vaccine.
Scroll to the bottom of the article.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-scientists-warn-government-is-putting-big-bets-on-vaccines-that-may-not-work-12004889

Ruck
Perhaps a game of charades is a better way of ordering at the chippie.

Very dodgy these under the table trades :-)

https://www.thespruceeats.com/tasseography-tea-leaf-reading-symbols-765838

This is the the Technical Analysis bible :-)

Maybe we will see more director buys in the coming weeks.
Whose round is it now :-)

Yes, they are out of the relegation zone now.
Only 15 points behind the leaders :-)

I actually don't see a difference in how Lindy has designed immunobody to attack antigens of virus cells (or virus infected cells) as opposed to antigens of cancer cells.
IMO it's all about choice of targets. If the targets do not exist on healthy cells then the vaccine is likely to be safe.
I would quite happily receive a vaccine that has been proved beyond statistical doubt to be safe whatever the genre of vaccine. But it does boil down to a personal choice.

"we shouldn't overlook that the aim of Covidity is also to produce effective neutralising antibodies to prevent infection in the first place"
I would also add that these neutralising antibodies have also been enhance by Avidimab. It will be interesting to know what improvement this enhancement provides.
We also know that the dual presentation to the APCs is responsible for the very high avidity of then activated TCells. Is this dual presentation enhanced even further by the Avidimab enhanced antibodies?