Touchlight, a UK-based DNA technology company, announced that its proprietary doggybone DNA (dbDNA) manufacturing platform has supported dosing of the first patient in the UK in a Phase I NEOVACC clinical trial evaluating a personalized cancer vaccine for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The investigator-sponsored study, led by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and the University of Liverpool, will enroll 10 patients with advanced disease whose cancer has only partially responded to standard immunotherapy. The personalized vaccine is designed to target the unique genetic mutations found in each patient’s tumor, with the trial evaluating its safety and ability to stimulate an anti-tumor immune response.

According to Touchlight, its enzymatic, cell-free dbDNA manufacturing platform enables rapid production of personalized DNA vaccine components, helping shorten manufacturing timelines while supporting scalable production.

“The doggybone DNA technology provides an ideal means to deliver rapid individual personalized vaccines to this large group of patients with an unmet clinical need and other patients with solid cancers,” Jill Makin, chief scientific officer at Touchlight, said in a statement.

The trial is supported by a £2.66 million grant from the UK Medical Research Council’s Development Pathway Funding Scheme. Researchers said the study could help demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing personalized cancer vaccines at scale for patients with lung cancer and potentially other solid tumors.

The announcement builds on Touchlight’s earlier work advancing its dbDNA platform. In 2022, the company received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support development of the technology for vaccine applications and investigate its potential for therapeutic monoclonal antibody production, with a focus on improving manufacturing speed, scalability, and cost.