Infinitopes

Infinitopes is an Oxford-based clinical-stage cancer vaccine company spun out of Cancer Research UK and the University of Oxford, combining two world-leading platforms: precision immunopeptidomics for antigen discovery and a high-efficiency vector delivery system capable of generating durable T-cell immune responses. The company is developing off-the-shelf therapeutic vaccines designed to prevent cancer recurrence after surgery, targeting an area of oncology where standard-of-care options offer limited immunological protection.

Cancer kills primarily through metastasis and recurrence following surgical intervention. Checkpoint inhibitors, the current standard of immunotherapy, prevent recurrence in only 30–40% of patients at best. The fundamental challenge in cancer vaccinology is identifying the right tumour antigens — the molecular targets the immune system needs to recognise and attack — with sufficient accuracy and cross-patient conservation to build a population-level, off-the-shelf product rather than a personalised one. Infinitopes' Precision Immunomics platform uses AI and mass spectrometry-driven immunopeptidomics to identify peptides that are both tumour-specific and shared across patients, solving this core challenge at the discovery layer.

The company's lead candidate, ITOP1, is an off-the-shelf therapeutic cancer vaccine designed to generate CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell responses against shared tumour antigens in oesophageal adenocarcinoma — one of the most pressing unmet needs in UK oncology. Infinitopes has won an MHRA Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway innovation passport and two maximum-size Innovate UK awards. In January 2026, the company launched the VISTA Phase I/IIa clinical trial across multiple NHS university cancer centres.

Infinitopes closed its second seed round in January 2026, bringing total seed financing to $35 million (£26 million). The round was co-led by Octopus Ventures and new investor Amplify Bio, with Macmillan Cancer Support joining alongside existing investors Cancer Research Horizons and Manta Ray Ventures. The company has grown from three academic co-founders to a team of over 20 full-time employees and is now the largest tenant of Oxford University's BioEscalator innovation accelerator.