The FORESIGHT Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program was launched to encourage the use of molecular imaging in drug development. The aim of the program is to provide advanced nuclear and optical imaging techniques, high-level expertise (including AI) and infrastructure to track drug behavior in the body and develop imaging biomarkers. The resulting knowledge aims to accelerate preclinical and clinical drug development, increase the success rate, reduce costs, improve efficacy, and support better patient-specific treatment choices. The program makes available funding via annual Calls to applicants all over the Netherlands for collaboration at high impact on Dutch economy together with industry partners. The first project, known with the acronym SILENCE, has been awarded and starts in May 2026.
Antibody‑based therapies are an important and rapidly growing group of drugs. These treatments are designed to recognise specific markers on cells and deliver their effect precisely where it is needed. However, many promising antibody‑based therapies still cause unwanted side effects because they can also accumulate in healthy organs and engage immune mechanisms outside the tumor.
In the SILENCE project, the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG Dept. of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Prof. M.N. Lub de Hooge’s team) and the biopharmaceutical company Zymeworks are joining forces to better understand and improve the safety of these treatments. Together, they will investigate how engineered antibodies, modified in the part that interacts with the immune-interacting Fc region, move through the body and how their design could reduce unwanted effects.
SILENCE will use advanced optical and nuclear imaging to track novel Fc‑modified antibodies travel in the body, compared with unmodified ones. Antibodies will be labelled with radioactive tracers or fluorescent dyes, so that their journey in mice can be followed from whole‑body level down to individual cells. The results of these studies will be used to build refined models that predicts how these Fc-engineered antibodies may behave in humans.
The outcomes of the SILENCE project will accelerate the development of next‑generation treatments with fewer side effects, potentially also beyond oncology.
The FORESIGHT PPP program is made possible via the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) subsidy scheme introduced by the Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation - Life Sciences & Health (TKI-LSH aka Health~Holland). Through the program, led by the steering institutions of UMCG, AUMC, NKI/AVL and TU/e, parties have the opportunity to apply for PPP projects with the PPP subsidy from Health~Holland.
An amount of 9 Million Euros PPP subsidy was awarded to the Program to distribute among and support collaborative projects by issuing yearly Calls for projects to run between 2025 and 2032.
For additional information, visit the page: The FORESIGHT PPP Program
For questions, please reach out to [email protected]
