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Propose a Vaccine Candidate to Treat Cancer
Xavier Cabana-Puig
Xavier Cabana-Puig
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Propose a Vaccine Candidate to Treat Cancer

Analyze and build a theoretical vaccine candidate to help patients with limited treatment options and poor outcomes.

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Apply now
Wednesdays
 at
5:00
P.M.
 ET /
2:00
P.M.
PT
8 weeks, 2-3 hours per week
Intermediate
No experience required
No experience required
Some experience required
Degree and experience required

Description

It's very beneficial for any young-career researcher to understand the whole cycle of a vaccine development. In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of a scientist and suggest a new vaccine candidate that targets mutations in a cancer of your choice. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you'll review existing clinical reports, decide which cancer your vaccine should target, develop a potential antigen sequence, and prepare a brief experimental plan for implementing in a biotech company. You'll become familiar with must-to-know tools like PubMed, Blast, Prism, Flowjo, and BioRender. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real biotech team.

Session timeline

  • Applications open
    May 27, 2024
  • Application deadline
    June 23, 2024
  • Project start date
    Week of July 8, 2024
    Week of
    July 8, 2024
  • Project end date
    Week of

What you will learn

  • Screen literature and synthesize potential candidates for preclinical validation with GenBank NIH software.
  • Perform analysis on GraphPad prism.
  • Picture and design suitable experiments in a timely manner.
  • Elaborate and present reports in a biotech environment.
Build Projects are 8-week experiences that operate on a rolling basis. Selected participants engage in weekly live workshops with a Build Fellow and 2-15 other students.

Project workshops

1
Introductions
2
Clinical Data
3
Target Mutation
4
Antigen Sequences
5
Present Clinical Data
6
Analyze Clinical Data
7
Prepare a Biotech report
8
Presentations

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of how the immune system works: what T cells are, what the innate and adaptative immune response is.  
  • Basic knowledge of laboratory environment: you should know what machines like centrifuge, micropipettes, safety cabinets, and flow cytometer are used for.  
  • Experience reading scientific papers and extracting meaning from them.  
  • Other prerequisites: before the project starts, you'll need to have Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint installed on your computer.

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About the expert

Xavier is a Molecular Biology Fellow at Open Avenues Foundation, where they work with students leading projects on scientific search clinical data and fundamental principles of molecular biology in Biotech companies.

Holding a PhD in Immunology and Microbiology from Virginia Tech, Xavier has several years of experience in research and 1 year in the Biotech industry. He currently works as Scientist at Elicio Therapeutics, a company responsible for creating and designing a cancer vaccine to deliver immunotherapeutics directly to the immune system.

Outside of work, Xavier enjoys running and hiking, trying new restaurants and coffee shops around the Boston area, or traveling and visiting his family in Spain.

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