Technological projects portfolio

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin cancer of neuroendocrine origin, often already metastatic at diagnosis, and associated with Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV), a ubiquitous virus with a seroprevalence of around 70% in the adult population. Surgery and radiation therapy are the main treatments. Chemotherapy does not eradicate tumor cells, and the use of checkpoint inhibitors only provides incomplete responses.

VIRASKIN is a specific autologous cell therapy process for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma, based on the presence of specific cytotoxic effectors that are immediately functional in vivo, as well as memory T cells capable of generating additional waves of specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte effectors after differentiation in vivo.

The VIRASKIN project consists of optimizing and then validating a cell therapy process applied to Merkel cell carcinoma.