Despite the continuing development of new and more efficient treatments, cancer remains the second cause of premature death worldwide. Multi-faceted interdisciplinary research efforts in industry and academia on different aspects of cancer have provided a knowledge basis for the development of novel therapeutic approaches. An ideal therapeutic agent would be a “magic bullet” that only kills the target cells. This ETN initiative with the title Magicbullet::Reloaded refers to Ehrlich’s bold idea and builds on the previous experience of the ETN MAGICBULLET (2015-2018, grant agreement No. 642004).

The consortium has been substantially expanded to perfectly address the needs of the new research direction. The planned ETN will design and synthesize an array of SMDCs (including PDCs), also targeting less investigated tumor antigens, investigate their pharmacokinetic behavior, their implication on the immune system, as well as their tumor selectivity and antitumor activity.