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After 1.5 years of laying a solid foundation for its unique preclinical cancer therapy development infrastructure, Oncode Accelerator announces the opening of its first call for Demonstrator Projects. Interested parties can be eligible for co-funding of their project.

Oncode Accelerator presented its work and ambitions at the Innovation for Health conference on 28th of March in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. At the end of an inspiring session, Oncode Accelerator announced the opening of the first call for the demonstrator projects.

“I started working at the Máxima Center shortly after becoming a parent myself.  Walking around our research hospital, I quickly realized that your child having to face cancer is one of the worst things that can happen to a family. That is a huge driving force for me to do everything possible to improve cancer treatment by discovering new therapies.” Sebastiaan van Heesch’s commitment to advancing cancer treatment extends beyond his role as group leader at the Máxima Center: he joined Oncode Institute per 2024 and acts as vice chair and management team member of the Therapeutic Vaccines workstream within Oncode Accelerator. In this blog, van Heesch talks about his enthusiasm for research and his perspective on the impact of Oncode Accelerator.

In this interview, Marjon Pasmooij and Jarno Drost share their insights on the impact of organoid technology in cancer research. 

Data management and governance is at the core of the Oncode Accelerator program. “Proper data management means setting the stage for an efficient, transparent, safe and innovative research collaboration”, according to the program’s Data Management and Governance Coordinator.

The Oncode Accelerator Foundation, coordinating the activities of the Oncode Accelerator program, welcomes two new board members on January 1st. ‘Both Arnoud and Mark are valuable additions to the team, bringing great experience and expertise to develop the program into the next phase’, says chairman of the Supervisory Board Fred Dom.

Jeanette Leusen (UMC Utrecht) and Debby Vermeer (DVK Biotech, UMC Utrecht) co-lead the Biologics workstream within Oncode Accelerator. In this interview, they delve into the world of Biologics and explore how the Biologics workstream is innovating cancer therapy, both from an industry and academic perspective.

Prof. dr. Mario van der Stelt (Leiden University) has been involved in the Oncode Accelerator program since its conception in 2021. ‘Only 5% of all small molecules in clinical trials will result in a therapy; this means there’s an enormous potential to do better.’

“If we can develop “immuno-competent organoids” with a stromal compartment, we may have the perfect in vitro model to study tumors” - that is in essence the vision of Alexander Eggermont on the power of organoids. Alexander is one of the driving forces behind the Organoids platform within Oncode Accelerator.

Meet Geraldine Vink, Program Manager at UMC Utrecht/IKNL. Together with Miriam Koopman, medical oncologist at UMC Utrecht, Geraldine heads up the Innovation Platform ‘Well-Defined Patient Cohorts’ within the Oncode Accelerator Program. Geraldine acts as a Program Lead, Miriam - as Principal Investigator (PI) and Scientific Lead of the platform.

"Outsmarting cancer, impacting lives." Under this motto, Oncode Institute has been fighting against cancer since its founding in 2017. Co-initiated by Oncode Institute, the Oncode Accelerator program has recently been established to take a new step: innovating the preclinical drug development process.

On September 8th, Oncode Accelerator gathered over 120 stakeholders to celebrate the official start of its activities. The ambitions are high: ‘Oncode Accelerator is an exemplary project for future public-private collaborations in the coming years’.

Oncode Accelerator will work closely with regulatory authorities such as the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board Agency and the European Medicines Agency to ensure regulatory acceptability of the novel techniques developed in the program. This will facilitate accelerated access to improved and safe therapies for cancer patients.

Utrecht, 8 September 2023 - Cancer is one of the most significant health challenges of our time. It remains a challenge to provide every cancer patient with the right treatment. Oncode Accelerator aims to change this by innovating the way we develop cancer treatments, ensuring the patient is at the heart of the process. Thanks to funding from the National Growth Fund, more than 30 public and private partners start this new way of working today.

Developing a new drug is expensive and takes a long time. In addition, there is only a slim chance that during development a drug candidate proves to be effective. That situation can and should be improved, says prof. dr. Miriam Koopman.