MRM Health Teams Up with Netherlands Cancer Institute to Boost Immunotherapy
MRM Health, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing microbiome-based therapeutics for inflammatory diseases and immuno-oncology, has announced a collaboration with Professor Emile Voest, senior group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and senior investigator at the Oncode Institute.
The partnership is designed to accelerate the development of novel live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) that could improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in cancer treatment.
ICIs have already reshaped the modern cancer landscape, helping the immune system recognise and attack tumour cells in ways that were once considered out of reach. But despite their transformative potential, these therapies can come with stubborn limitations that hold them back from helping more patients.
Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), heightened toxicity when ICIs are used in combinations, primary or acquired resistance, and serious side effects can all restrict who can safely receive these treatments – and how far clinicians can push them.
In recent years, a growing body of scientific evidence has pointed to an intriguing lever that could influence the performance of immunotherapy: the gut microbiome. Research now suggests that ICI efficacy, safety and combination potential may be enhanced through targeted modulation of the gut microbiome.
Certain microbiome compositions have been associated with more favourable outcomes, while microbiome imbalances – particularly those triggered by antibiotics and other therapies – have been linked to reduced survival.
For MRM Health, that emerging science aligns with a clear mission: building therapeutic approaches that restore balance and actively shape immune responses. Central to the collaboration is MRM’s proprietary CORAL platform, designed to develop bacterial consortia that can restore a dysbiotic microbiome and modulate immune and metabolic pathways connected to ICI response.
The ambition is not simply to “add good bacteria”, but to engineer rational, targeted microbial solutions that meaningfully influence the underlying biology of treatment response.
Professor Voest’s established expertise in tumour microbiome research and translational oncology is expected to play a key role in converting complex microbiome insights into practical therapeutic strategies.
Their contribution, MRM says, will help accelerate the design and production process – turning promising scientific signals into next-generation LBPs with the potential to support immunotherapy across multiple cancer types.
Voest highlighted the clinical relevance behind the collaboration, noting that his team’s work has already underscored the importance of the gut microbiome in shaping how patients respond to immunotherapy.
They stated that their research has demonstrated the critical role of the gut microbiome and its metabolites in influencing responses, adding that partnering with MRM Health creates an opportunity to translate those insights into innovative strategies that aim to overcome resistance and help unlock the full potential of ICI treatments.
MRM’s leadership is positioning the partnership as a convergence of platforms and expertise: microbiome engineering on one side, and world-leading translational oncology knowledge on the other.
The company’s CEO echoed that intent, stating that by combining MRM’s rational microbiome design platform with Professor Voest and his team at the NKI, the collaboration aims to accelerate the creation of next-generation therapies that increase response rates to immune checkpoint inhibitors – ultimately meaningfully improving patient outcomes across multiple cancer types.
While the field of microbiome-based therapeutics is still evolving, the direction of travel is becoming clearer: the gut microbiome is increasingly viewed not as background noise, but as an active variable in the immunotherapy equation.
If targeted modulation can help shift efficacy, improve tolerability, or reduce resistance, it could offer a valuable new route to making powerful cancer treatments work for more people, more reliably.
In conclusion
MRM Health’s collaboration with Professor Emile Voest represents a focused push to translate cutting-edge tumour microbiome research into live biotherapeutic products that may strengthen immune checkpoint inhibitor performance.
By leveraging MRM’s CORAL platform and Voest’s expertise in translational oncology, the partnership aims to address key limitations of ICIs – such as resistance, toxicity and immune-related adverse events – through targeted restoration and modulation of the gut microbiome.
The goal is clear: accelerate next-generation therapeutic development and, in doing so, help deliver more durable responses and better outcomes for patients across a wider range of cancers.
News Credits: MRM Health collaborates with Oncode Institute and Netherlands Cancer Institute
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