Vaxinc: harnessing the power of natural killer cells in cancer therapies

A new spin out company from the Faculty of Medicine has received support from Future Worlds, a start-up platform based at the University of Southampton.

Vaxinc is founded by Associate Dean Enterprise Professor Salim Khakoo and is pioneering a new and unique vaccination strategy that delivers protection against cancer.

Natural killer cells (NK cells) are a type of white blood cell which exist in our immune system and play a major role in the rejection of both tumours and virally infected cells. These cells express many different receptors and can react in a number of different ways when stimulated through one receptor.

Vaxinc have discovered a new way that NK cells respond to small viral peptides, which allows them to be targeted and switched on through a simple vaccination strategy. This can be used to combat not only cancer but a number of diseases including global pathogens such as Dengue, Zika, Yellow Fever and Hepatitis C.

With the current market for cancer immunotherapy estimated to become worth more than 110 billion dollars by 2021, scientists and doctors around the world are researching new ways to use immunotherapy. While other researchers are treating patients in trials with off-the-shelf NK cells, Vaxinc are taking a different approach. The team are developing an NK cell-based vaccine that can be far more cost-effective and have a much wider reach compared to current products.

Future Worlds is an on-campus startup incubator and platform, championing the innovative commercial opportunities being developed by researchers and students at the University of Southampton.