Kahimmune launches and secures exclusive license for dark-genome cancer vaccine platform

In the press release announcing the agreement, the company also said a seed funding round was already underway. Philippe Villain-Guillot, the company’s CEO, told European Biotechnology Magazine that the funding had just started with a target size for the seed round of €8 million, with a first tranche of €3 million by the end of 2026. “The company plans to contact venture capital funds, family offices, and business angel networks,” said Villan-Guillot.

What Kahimmune is actually licensing

The agreement gives Kahimmune Therapeutics exclusive rights to the core technology underlying its Kahinomics discovery platform, along with an initial set of tumor antigens identified through that approach, referred to as Kahigens. The licensed assets originate from research conducted at Gustave Roussy and were supported through a maturation program led by SATT Paris-Saclay.

Scientifically, the work builds on more than a decade of research into pioneer translation products (PTPs), peptides produced through non-standard translation processes that can still be recognized by the immune system. This line of research, led at Gustave Roussy by Inserm scientist Sébastien Apcher, has shown that regions of the genome traditionally labelled as “non-coding” can nonetheless give rise to immunogenic peptides detectable by the immune system. This work led to the idea that the cancer immunopeptidome may extend beyond conventional protein-coding genes.

“Kahigens will provide the advantage to be new and to be specifically associated to a response to a cancer therapy, making them therapy-specific neoantigens, instead of cancer type-specific neoantigens, bringing synergy and better outcomes to patients,” explained Villain-Guillot

While individual antigen targets have not been publicly disclosed, the company has said it intends to develop shared mRNA cancer vaccines, with a first program focused on colorectal and pancreatic cancer.

Dark genome and cancer vaccines

Kahimmune’s approach starts with the premise that only a small fraction of our DNA encodes conventional proteins, while the vast majority is non-coding. In humans, roughly 1% to 2% is protein-coding, meaning the rest is non-coding DNA. The “dark genome” label also reflects the fact that these non-coding regions have historically been less explored in cancer research.

For years, the non-coding parts of the genome were largely ignored in cancer research, at least from an antigen-discovery perspective. That started to change as researchers have shown that cells can translate non-canonical open reading frames from these regions, producing peptides that appear on MHC class I molecules, the system used by immune cells to survey intracellular proteins.

In tumors, this has expanded the pool of potential antigens beyond classical protein-coding genes, with studies detecting large numbers of previously overlooked peptides that are visible to the immune system. 

And technology played its part, too. Improved ribosome profiling and more sensitive mass spectrometry have made it possible to detect antigens that would have gone unnoticed using earlier, protein-centric methods.

Therapeutically, if tumors present peptides that are rare or absent in healthy tissues, these targets may look more foreign to the immune system than classical shared tumor-associated antigens, which often run into tolerance and specificity constraints. 

More broadly, therapeutic cancer vaccines have regained momentum. A recent review describes a field that is advancing on both personalized and shared-antigen approaches, but is still constrained by the tumor microenvironment, delivery limitations, and the practicalities of scaling.

Signals have been encouraging with Moderna and Merck reporting positive five-year follow-up data of their personalized mRNA vaccine in Melanoma, and the U.K.-based cancer vaccine company Infinitopes closing a $35 million seed round, both in January.

Companies like Kahimmune that look to the dark genome for answers remain niche, but they are not alone. UbiVac, for example, has positioned its approach around what it describes as cancer’s “dark matter,” focusing on cryptic antigens detected through immune profiling. Earlier attempts, such as Vaxon Biotech, explored shared vaccines based on cryptic peptides, but its candidate failed to meet its primary endpoints in phase 2. 

What’s next for Kahimmune?

For now, much of the picture remains to be filled in. The seed round is, of course, one of the next steps. On the development side, Villain-Guillot told European Biotechnology Magazine the company was working on the design of the mRNA-LNP structure of its first cancer vaccine candidate, KAH-001, and that the final structure should be selected in 12 to 18 months.

Strategically, Kahimmune has positioned its vaccines as combination therapies, but has not named any partner drugs or pharmaceutical collaborators, leaving open how it intends to integrate its approach into existing treatment options. The company’s CEO said he couldn’t disclose if conversations with potential partners were ongoing at this stage.