Development of a Peptide Vaccine for DIPG

Principal investigators: John Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, Oren Becher, MD and Kendra Congdon, PhD
Institution: Duke University
Award: $400,000 over three years

Immunotherapy promises an exquisitely precise approach to treatment. However, it is limited in this role due to a lack of consistently expressed and tumor-specific antigens. Recently, a point mutation was discovered that provides a highly conserved and tumor-specific mutation, H3.3K27M, in 60 percent of DIPGs. Research objectives are to maximize immunogenicity of an H3.3K27M-containing peptide, to optimize vaccination timing in combination with radiation therapy in a murine model of H3.3K27M positive DIPG, and to perform IND-enabling studies.