13 July 2026
Funding approved for research into a personalised cancer vaccine
At its meeting on 4 June, the Supervisory Board agreed to fund Erasmus MC research into a personalised neoantigen vaccine for pancreatic cancer. The grant was awarded to Dr Casper van Eijck, clinical technologist and researcher, and Dr Esmee van der Ploeg, researcher and specialist in immunological analysis.
The project will investigate how to develop a vaccine tailored to an individual patient's tumour. Its aim is to help the patient's own immune system mount a more effective response against the cancer. The research closely matches the foundation's ambition to make several forms of immunotherapy available to people with pancreatic cancer.
The vaccine will be developed using the research infrastructure at Erasmus MC, including Professor Joachim Aerts' immunomonitoring laboratory and the hospital's facilities for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). Previous investments and donations to Support Casper helped make this infrastructure possible. These shared facilities should enable new treatments to be developed faster, more efficiently and, ultimately, at a lower cost.
Erasmus MC has established NeOncoFRAx BV, a company wholly owned by the hospital, to manage the vaccine's further development. NeOncoFRAx will help take the treatment from academic research towards clinical use, covering production, quality control, regulation, partnerships and follow-on funding. If the vaccine proves safe and effective, the long-term aim is to make this complex personalised treatment affordable and accessible to patients.
Support Casper looks forward to working with Erasmus MC and NeOncoFRAx BV on the development of personalised vaccines for pancreatic cancer.