Mission and vision INCITE

Project INCITE

The project INCITE, which stands for Immune Niches for Cancer ImmunoTherapy Enhancement, Improving immunotherapy through 3D printing and cell technology.

INCITE stands for insight; penetrating research; creating perspective; the formation of an idea; working from a firm conviction; a vision; informed judgement; intelligence and change. In particular, it stands for intelligently inciting a change, instead of waiting for it to happen.

Through INICTE, we acquire insight in new developmental possibilities for T-cells therapy to combat cancer. By combining new technology and 3D printing, we can engineer solutions on a cellular level.

Why INCITE?

ICITE is a research project funded by the EU in the FET (Future Emerging Technologies) programme. The concept behind the FET is to enable “risky” research executed by interdisciplinary consortia. These consortia explore and develop new and visionary ideas and technologies, challenge existing paradigms and explore uncharted territory. If the intended innovation is fruitful, this will result in a world-wide breakthrough with regard to treating solid tumours. Indeed, realizing such breakthrough is one of core ideas behind the FET programme.

The various disciplines within INCITE must collaborate to achieve the results we envision. If we achieve our goals, it would mean that chemotherapy may not be the leading treatment type for solid tumours, but that treatment with the patient’s T-cells develops into a feasible alternative.

Dissemination and innovation

The development of T-cell therapy is just unfolding, and so we can expect radical new developments and discoveries in the years to come. INCITE is a strong player in this newly developing field. Within the INCITE project, we’ll build an immune niche outside the patient’s body. The immune niche mimics the biochemical circumstances within the body’s lymph nodes. To optimizes these circumstances, the immune niche will be carefully designed and 3D-printed. Some of the patient’s T-cells are utilized to grow them in large quantities. Within the immune niche, this new army of T-cells will be trained to combat the patient’s tumour. The entire process of T-cell propagation and application will be analyzed and evaluated to map out the most effective T-cell profiles.

Concludingly, all disciplines within the consortium need to collaborate closely to realize the breakthrough we jointly envision.

Results

If we succeed in achieving a breakthrough, this means that:

  1. We don’t need to rely (completely) on destructive chemotherapy that lays waste to the bodily immune system. Currently, chemotherapy and radiation are often utilized, but their long-term impact is far from ideal.
  2. Once we succeed in keeping the immune system functional during treatment, we can use the body’s own T-cells for propagation and training purposes. By feeding the newly trained army of T-cells back into the patient’s body., the persistence and regeneration rate of solid tumours can be overcome. The specificity of the T-cells could possibly result in a very high success rate for this type of treatment.
  3. In turn, this would result in a significant reduction of healthcare costs. Currently, the costs for cancer treatment are considerable, as are its long-term impacts on both the Quality of Life of the patient and the healthcare system as a whole.

Concluding, we would like to help as many people as possible to retain their Quality of Life during and after treatment. If we succeed in forcing a scientific and technological breakthrough, we may well be able to apply this technology for the treatment of other diseases.