Phylogica Limited provided the first results from mouse melanoma models evaluating the ability of the company's FPP delivery technology to effectively stimulate the immune system to attack and eliminate tumour cells and supporting patent information. The company's collaboration with the Telethon Kids Institute Cancer Immunology Unit combines Dr. Jason Waithman's immunology expertise with Phylogica's novel endosomal escape Functional Penetrating Peptides (FPPs) to generate a cancer vaccine that specifically targets part of the immune system called cross presenting dendritic cells - whose role is to identify viruses and other invaders including cancer. Once a virus or cancer is identified the role of dendritic cells is to break down the virus or cancer and to then present parts of them (peptides) to T cells. Having received this information, the T cells (CD4+ and CD8+) then expand in number and go on to eliminate the cancer cells. The increase in the number of CD8+ cells in mice treated with an antigen (gDgB) or an antigen attached to an FPP (1746-gDgB). Both of these should be compared to the "negative control" known to have no effect (poly IC). The number of CD8+ cells is increased in both mice treated with gDgB and 1746-gDgB, and the FPP (1746-gDgB) version is significantly better. The FPP version (1746-gDgB) produces more CD8+ cells than mice infected by Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) (an indication of the strength of T cell response from a healthy mouse with an active viral infection). Mice were treated with an antigen alone (gDgB - light grey) or attached to an FPP (1746 –gDgB- orange). Although both result in an increase in CD8+ cells in mice, the efficient processing of the FPP-gDgB results in a significantly greater number of CD8+ cells. The Poly I:C treatment (dark grey) is a "negative control" known to have no effect, and the HSV group are mice infected with Herpes Simplex Virus that have high levels of CD8+ cells demonstrating a competent immune response. The FPP cancer vaccine was then tested in a cancer model to see whether the expansion in CD8+ cells has a meaningful effect on mouse survival. The result of the experiment in mice with melanoma demonstrates improved survival for the `FPP-antigen' (treatment group) when compared to either the `antigen alone' (positive control) or placebo (negative control) groups (average survival of 23+ days in the FPP-antigen `treatment group' vs 12 days in the antigen alone positive control group and 7 days for the placebo or negative control group respectively).