On April 7, 2026 Rosalind Franklin University Helix 51 incubator company UP Oncolytics reported encouraging preclinical results in two studies for a novel glioblastoma therapy presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Special Conference on Brain Cancer, held March 23–25 in Philadelphia.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
The studies highlight the potential of an oncolytic virus-based therapy to both predict treatment response and drive tumor regression in glioblastoma (GBM), one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
GBM remains highly resistant to treatment, with approximately 13,000 new U.S. cases each year and a median survival of just 14 months. Despite broader advances in oncology, no new FDA-approved therapies for GBM have emerged in the past two decades.
UP Oncolytics’ presentations focused on its lead therapy using Zika virus-based oncolytic technology for gliomas:
Predicting treatment response: In the study "Transcriptomic Prediction of Zika Virus Susceptibility in Glioblastoma Cell Lines Using Feature Selection and Machine Learning Approaches," researchers used machine learning to identify and understand genetic and molecular markers associated with tumor sensitivity or resistance to therapy.
"The ability to predict a tumor’s response to treatment ensures patients receive therapies most likely to be effective for their specific disease," said Anna Lundeen, graduate student with UP Oncolytics.
Demonstrating Therapeutic Impact: The study, "Low-neurovirulence wild-type Zika virus strains induce durable tumor regression and survival benefit in patient-derived glioblastoma models," showed complete tumor remission and prolonged survival in in vivo GBM models following treatment.
The research was conducted, in part, in collaboration with RFU’s Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology and Infection, and Center for Proteomics and Molecular Therapeutics, with additional support from the university’s research cores. Ongoing collaboration with RFU is further supported by a recent Illinois Innovation Voucher Program award through the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
"We are pleased with the promising results of these two studies," said Parvez Akhtar, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of UP Oncolytics. "They promise a new approach to effectively treating GBM tumors while minimizing impact on normal cells. We are working hard to bring this advance to patients."
Janice Urban, PhD, RFU Interim Executive Vice President for Research, added, "UP Oncolytics continues to meet key development milestones, and we are optimistic that this new approach to treating intractable cancer is on the horizon for GBM patients."
(Press release, Rosalind Franklin University, APR 7, 2026, View Source [SID1234664213])