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Harnessing Epigenetic therapies to License Melanoma Vaccine

Nicolas Vabret, PhD

Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD

Career Development Award

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Therapies that inhibit epigenetic modulators can induce a state of “virus mimicry” in cancer cells by activating long-overlooked “junk DNA” of the human genome. This state of viral mimicry triggers immune responses and induces the expression of immunogenic antigens that are specific to the cancer cells. In this project, we will evaluate the efficacy of cancer vaccines that target these antigens when they are administered in combination with epigenetic therapy that induce their expression in cancer cells.