Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Occurrence of these liver tumors is associated with poor prognosis and the treatment options are strongly limited. Aspartyl β-hydroxylase (ASPH) is a protein overexpressed on the cell surface of HCC tumor cells und represents a specific target for immunotherapeutic approaches.

Goal of this project is the development of an anti-tumor vaccine based on adjuvanted ASPH nanocapsules, the evaluation of ASPH-directed immune response in a cell culture model of human dendritic cells and T cell, as well as the improvement of immune responses via deletion of immunosuppressive epitopes in the ASPH protein sequence.

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