Valo Therapeutics and DNAtrix enter into strategic partnership to develop peptide-coated oncolytic viruses for treating cancer

Valo Therapeutics, a spin-out company from the University of Helsinki, and DNAtrix announced an exclusive R&D collaboration to develop enhanced vaccines using DNAtrix’s clinical stage viruses and Valo’s proprietary antigenic peptide technology.

clinical stage oncolytic adenovirus platform and PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus) vaccination technology will be combined to generate a novel “armed oncolytic vaccine” for cancer therapy.  While oncolytic adenoviruses alone offer a promising strategy to treat cancer, in combination with PeptiCRAd, superior and durable immunological protection against most forms of solid tumors is expected. Given the ease with which this therapy can be adapted for emerging neoantigens, it has significant potential as a personalized therapeutic capable of focusing the immune system on generating cancer specific CD8+ (killer) T cells on a case by case basis. 

The Valo Tx platform, PeptiCRAd, was developed out of the laboratory of Professor at the University of Helsinki.

“We are thrilled to be working with DNAtrix, who shares our vision to develop and deliver safe and effective new treatments for cancer patients,” said Dr Michael Stein, Executive Chairman of the Board of Valo Tx. “DNAtrix brings world-class expertise and experience in multiple tumor types and clinically-tested oncolytic viruses, making them an ideal partner for development of a new class of armed oncolytic vaccines”.

Dr Frank Tufaro, CEO of DNAtrix commented: “Valo Tx’s PeptiCRAd platform has enormous promise for the personalized treatment of tumors. For the first time, we can combine the potent tumor killing and immune stimulation triggered by viruses along with a patient specific antitumor vaccine for generating effective antitumor immunity. Perhaps most importantly, the process eliminates the need to manufacture new viruses for each patient. We are moving swiftly into the clinic to evaluate this exciting technology.” 

Contact information:



Scott Cuthill, PhD

Chief Business Officer



Scott Cuthill, PhD

Chief Business Officer



Scott Cuthill, PhD

Chief Business Officer



Scott Cuthill, PhD

Chief Business Officer



Imran Alibhai, PhD

SVP Business Development

About Valo Tx

(Helsinki and Oxford) is an immunotherapy company that is developing (neo)antigen-coated oncolytic viruses as anti-cancer therapeutic vaccines. The Valo Tx platform, PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus), was developed out of the laboratory of Professor Vincenzo Cerullo at the University of Helsinki. It turns oncolytic adenoviruses into targeted tissue specific cancer vaccines without the need to generate and manufacture multiple genetically modified viruses.

About DNAtrix

(Houston and San Diego) is a clinical stage Oncolytic Virus company. Its lead product, DNX-2401, has demonstrated robust efficacy and safety, including clinical studies across several tumor types.  Over 200 patients have been treated with DNX-2401 as it progresses towards phase 3 trials targeting glioblastoma. In addition, a second DNAtrix OV armed with OX40L (DNX-2440) is under evaluation at the Clinica Universidad de Navarra (Spain) in patients with recurrent glioblastoma.