Tampa’s Morphogenesis Wants To Cure Cancer With an Affordable Shot (Axios)

Tampa’s Morphogenesis Wants To Cure Cancer With an Affordable Shot

A group of scientists in Tampa is working to make treating cancer as easy as getting a shot. While most of today’s cancer treatments tend to be toxic and expensive, UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech alum Morphogenesis, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is working to develop immunotherapies that are safe and affordable. “Affordability is key,” co-founder Patricia Lawman told Axios. “If people can’t pay for it, what good is it?”

The company’s ImmuneFx vaccine uses plasmid DNA to activate new white blood cells in the body that attach to tumors, making them impossible for the immune system to ignore. At the company’s Tampa lab, plasmid DNA is grown inside a bacteria before it is then purified, tested and put into vials.

People have been receiving Morphogenesis’ vaccine as part of trials at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, the University of Southern California, the University of Utah and Harvard’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

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