Immunotherapy Lab: BC Cancer Foundation

WHO

BC Cancer and BC Cancer Foundation are two Provincial organizations charged with fundraising for cancer research, delivering research and care to cancer patients in British Columbia.

WHAT

Built solely on philanthropic funds, the Conconi Family Immunotherapy Lab is first in Canada hub for custom immunotherapy treatment production. Thank you to all who contributed to making this a reality! Our hope is that this production capacity helps establish CAR-T immunotherapy as a new standard of care.

WHY

Our immune system naturally fights cancer, but it eventually gets exhausted and cancer wins. Current standard of care treatments like radiation and chemotherapy are very toxic and taxing on the body and mind. What if we can supercharge our T cells to fight cancer better? What if we only needed one treatment as opposed to months or years in therapy? These questions have possible answers in immunotherapy. Scientist at BC Cancer will now begin testing the facility and T cell therapy production to ready for clinical trials.

WILD CARD

This gift was structured as part Challenge, part Innovation Grant. Through the incredible work of the BC Cancer Foundation, our $2M commitment was able to attract another $3.5 M for a total of $5.5 M going towards the establishment and operationalizing of the Conconi Family Immunotherapy Lab, at the Deeley Research Centre at the BC Cancer, Victoria.