Imanis Life Sciences has announced the launch of a new product line of oncolytic vaccinia viruses for virotherapy research. These viruses are licensed from Genelux Corporation as part of Genelux’s proprietary, vaccinia virus-based technology platform for research use.

"We are excited to enter into a partnership with Genelux to offer researchers, for the first time, selected oncolytic vaccinia viruses for use in research,” said Dr Kah Whye Peng, chief operating officer of Imanis. “Genelux Corporation has an extraordinarily strong portfolio of recombinant vaccinia viruses that encode novel reporter genes, and we are delighted to partner with them to offer researchers these important new tools for research.”

Oncolytic virotherapy has emerged as a new immunotherapeutic treatment modality that uses replication-competent viruses to target and destroy cancer cells. In 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first oncolytic virus, T-VEC (Imlygic), for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

Researchers rely on well-characterized oncolytic viruses to establish equivalence or superiority in preclinical studies. Imanis’ repository of well-characterized recombinant oncolytic viruses includes measles virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, herpes simplex virus, and vaccinia virus to facilitate this research.

“In the new immunotherapy era, the power of oncolytic viruses is gaining momentum, and research utilizing some of our preclinical strains will encourage the development and refinement of cancer immunotherapies,” said Thomas Zindrick, chief executive officer of Genelux. “We believe that providing scientists with some of our most in-demand preclinical recombinant vaccinia virus strains will facilitate development of novel oncolytic vaccinia virus-based combination therapies. Imanis’ expertise and existing infrastructure will facilitate the use of safe, effective oncolytic virus products in combination therapy research.”

Imanis will initially offer two vaccinia viruses engineered to express reporter genes to facilitate tracking in culture dishes and in animals, and will launch several other vaccinia viruses by the end of 2017. One of the vaccinia viruses currently available from Imanis encodes the sodium iodide symporter (NIS). NIS imaging by SPECT or PET provides a high-resolution 3D picture of where the virus is in the animal. The two viruses are- VV(Li)-RucGFP-hNIS-tRFP, which encodes optical imaging reporter genes and the NIS protein; VV(Li)-RucGFP-mTyr-GusA, which encodes tyrosinase, the primary enzyme responsible for melanin production, allowing it to be imaged by photoacoustic imaging

Imanis Life Sciences provides biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies products and services in the fields of oncolytic virotherapy and noninvasive reporter gene imaging. Headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota, Imanis offers the world’s only commercially available recombinant oncolytic virus repository. Imanis also provides scientists with ready-to-use reporter gene cell lines, reporter lentiviruses, and antibodies, to support research in regenerative medicine, gene therapy, oncology, and virotherapy. Imanis also offers contract research services and support for studies in oncolytic virotherapy and preclinical imaging.