Biomaterials-Enhanced Antigen Specific T Cells for Off the Shelf Cancer Immunotherapy

Background

T cells have been successfully used against hematologic malignancies, but currently are limited against brain tumors.

Project Goal

Sarah will be working to achieve the goal of enhancing manufacture of T cells for pediatric brain tumors. They hope to develop a third party bank of T cells to provide a ready source of tumor antigen-specific T cells recognizing malignant cells in pediatric brain tumors through their native T cell receptors. They hypothesize that they can build off of their previous success in generating antigen-specific T cells from native populations by utilizing novel biomaterials. They currently have a method for expanding T cells against potential brain tumor-specific antigens, but the process itself can be greatly improved.