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From Innovation to Impact: Highlights from the 2025 Oncode Accelerator Summit
How do you turn cutting-edge science into therapies that change patients’ lives? That question was at the heart of the second Oncode Accelerator Summit, where over 300 researchers, entrepreneurs, clinicians, patient advocates and industry leaders gathered for an afternoon devoted to one theme: From Innovation to Impact.
The 2025 edition of the Oncode Accelerator Summit opened with a reflection on the origins and destinations of the Oncode Accelerator program with Friso Smit, Chief Operating Officer of Oncode Accelerator Foundation, and event host Alex Cloherty, Marketing & Communications Manager at Oncode Accelerator. As one of the original founders of the Oncode Accelerator program, Friso outlined the ‘moonshot’ envisioned for the program at its birth: to reduce the time it takes for scientific insights to become real-world cancer treatments and ultimately bring better therapies to patients.
Smit’s message was clear: Innovation is not enough on its own. Scientists must work together with diverse stakeholders – from investors to regulatory authorities to patient advocates – to deliver therapies that truly impact lives.
Friso Smit, Chief Operating Officer of Oncode Accelerator FoundationOur journey has just started. We hope to inspire you to join us in our mission to outsmart cancer and impact lives. Only by collaborating, we can ensure that cancer patients of all ages will have access to therapy options that also work for them.
This message set the tone for the day. With a remarkably diverse range of attendees, including academic researchers, biotech and pharma representatives, government workers, patient advocates, healthcare providers, and venture capitalists, the Summit represented an important opportunity for key players from across the oncology ecosystem to meet and discuss what it takes to move from innovation to impact.
Outsmarting Cancer, One Demonstrator Project at a Time
Bastiaan Bijl, Business Development Manager at the Oncode Accelerator Foundation, then took the stage to introduce the Oncode Accelerator program’s unique approach to accelerating oncology breakthroughs: Demonstrator Projects. These preclinical discovery and development projects aim to develop new cancer therapies, while simultaneously validating innovative technologies that can be used to accelerate the development of those therapies.
Attendees were then presented a showcase of some of the first approved Demonstrator Projects, each of which takes a different approach to applying cutting-edge science to outsmart cancer. They learned about:
- ATTImmune: developing an innovative, modular approach to igniting anti-tumor immunity – Presented by Jessica McDonough, Co-Founder and COO at Attivare Therapeutics, this project focuses on developing a modular platform to ignite the immune system against tumors. It’s a fresh take on precision immunotherapy.
- Leveraging Organoids to Advance Therapeutic Vaccines for Pediatric Sarcomas – Karin Sanders, Associate Group Leader in the Clevers Group and Head of the Central Máxima Organoid Biobank at the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology, shared how her research team is using patient-derived organoids to better understand these pediatric tumors and accelerate the development of therapeutic vaccines against them.
- Rational Design of Drug Therapies for Peritoneal Metastases via Synergy and Prolonged Exposure – Peter-Paul Fransen, Co-Founder and CSO at UPyTher B.V., explained how prolonged, synergistic drug exposure through smart biomaterials design could transform treatment options for patients with few alternatives today.
Demonstrator Projects like these are at the core of Oncode Accelerator. As well as validating the innovative infrastructure that Oncode Accelerator has invested in over the first years of its existence, Demonstrator Projects also push promising ideas toward clinical viability, where they can have impact for patients.
Building the Oncode Accelerator Oncology Ecosystem to Accelerate R&D
Delivering impact doesn’t happen by accident. Bridging science from the lab to the clinic requires a strong R&D ecosystem, strategic thinking, and simple grit.
To learn more, we first turned to our sister organization, Oncode Institute, for ‘tips and tricks for impact’. Jan Paul Medema, Scientific Director of Oncode Institute, shared his lessons learned from years of translating fundamental insights into real-world outcomes. He highlighted the immense return on investment that Oncode Institute has brought about by funding promising early-stage science. Outcomes included Oncode Institute’s top-3 scientific performance worldwide as based on citations, 11 spin-off companies, and 6 new innovations on the market. Medema also stressed the importance of collaboration in achieving impact, highlighting the Demonstrator Project led by Sjoerd van der Burg of Leiden University Medical Center and Oncode Institute, and the strategic alliance between Oncode Accelerator, Oncode Institute, and UK-based Cancer Research Horizons as examples.
Next, in order to actively build connections and share ideas, attendees spread out to discuss specific challenges in oncology drug discovery and development within round-table sessions focused on:
- How AI accelerates (preclinical) drug development
- Can representative human models replace animal testing in the future?
- Valley of Death: How to Overcome the Translational Gap?
Simultaneously, attendees could visit an explanatory session on Demonstrator Projects with the Oncode Accelerator Business Developers or connect with representatives from the Oncode Accelerator Workstreams – Small Molecules, Biologics, Cell and Gene Therapy, and Therapeutic Vaccines. The attendees, who came from eight different European and North American countries, took the opportunity to form new connections and strengthen old ones, building bridges between the expertise and capabilities that are necessary for strong R&D ecosystems.
After the break-out sessions, attendees heard from a panel on ‘How We Add Value: Building Blocks for Impact’. Former Minister Conny Helder (FAST), Prof. Ellen Moors (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University), and Dr. Jeanine Roodhart (UMC Utrecht) brought unique perspectives spanning health systems, innovation science, and patient-centric research and care. The panelists underscored that long-term buy-in and funding from the government is essential for translating research findings innovations from the lab towards real-world impact. To realize this, science communication is essential; stakeholders must understand what research is being done and why before they will stand behind it. The panelists also reiterated the need for collaboration. As Conny Helder put it, it is key to “build an oncology ecosystem, not an ego-system” to deliver real impact. The importance of developing cancer therapies that are accessible, affordable, and equitable was also discussed. Jeanine Roodhart explained the role of the Oncode Accelerator Patient Cohorts Platform in this:
Jeanine Roodhart, Medical Oncologist, UMC Utrecht and Lead of the Oncode Accelerator Patient Cohort PlatformWe want to learn from every patient. With randomized controlled trials we learn from less than 10% of the patients – only the relatively fit ones. By using real world data from well-defined patient cohorts, we will be able to better capture the heterogeneity of the population. We can also look at rarer subgroups of patients, like those with specific mutations or very frail patients. Then we can better assess which therapies that work for those patients.
The day closed with a talk that captured the imagination and enthusiasm of everyone in the room. Elise de Reus, PhD, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships and Customer Success at the AI-protein-design company Cradle, showed how generative AI is no longer futuristic nor simply hype. She presented different ways that Cradle – a fast-growing company with offices in Amsterdam and Zurich – uses AI to generate protein candidates and improve their properties, helping scientists to engineer better proteins, faster. de Reus’ talk highlighted how mixing innovative technologies with robust science can break through bottlenecks and open new possibilities to scientists, ultimately accelerating impact for patients. She also added that great science alone is not enough; sufficient funding, cross-expertise collaboration, and thoughtful change management are also essential to transform innovations into impact.
Validating our innovative approach
Within Oncode Accelerator, Demonstrator Projects are preclinical discovery and development projects for oncology therapies, aiming to validate the research infrastructure built within the program and to demonstrate that it can deliver clinically ready, de-risked candidate drugs. Our call is open for new program partners to apply for projects to progress their promising oncology asset to the next technology readiness level through co-development. Successful applicants can receive up to 1.5 million euro in co-funding, supporting them in reaching their next value inflection point.
Would you like to learn more about Demonstrator Projects? We invite you to check out our frequently asked questions, or get in touch with our business developers.
More about Demonstrator Projects
Missed the event? Don’t despair, recordings of the presentations will be made available soon. Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive news and updates and to receive a link to the Oncode Accelerator Summit presentations.
Photo credits 2025 Oncode Accelerator Summit: Seth Carnill
