Product optimisation of a novel new melanoma therapy using advanced microscopy and biomarkers to enhance the commercialisation of this technology.

Melanoma, or skin cancer, is the 5th most common cancer in both men and women and kills more than 6 people each day in the UK alone. In the last decade, immunotherapies have shown great promise in treating this disease, but with just over 50% of patients respond to this treatment. With a price-tag running at 100's of thousands of pounds for treatment per patient and a relatively high number of serious adverse effects, there is a clear unmet clinical need for new alternative treatments.

KLAS therapeutics offers a unique solution to this, by providing an alternative therapy for this cancer that can be used both independently and in combination with current treatments. Our technology works by utilising a process known as photodynamic therapy (PDT). Light is used to activate our compound, known as KLAS-PDT, which then converts otherwise harmless oxygen into a hyper reactive form that kills the cancer cells.

By stimulating the body's immune system, KLAS-PDT can be combined with existing immunotherapies leading to significantly reduced cost and improved patient outcomes.

This project seeks to enhance the commercialisation of this exciting new technology, by generating a data package that will confirm the optimal parameters for light activation and dosing regimen. Rendering the technology closer to achieving actual patient benefit while at the same time developing new methods that can be carried forward and translated for the analysis of our eventual clinical data.