Systematic screening of receptor pairs combinations for improving solid tumor cancer immunotherapy
Cancer remains a top cause of death for children in the United States despite significant advances in treatment options and effectiveness. Even children who are cured face long-term health problems from their treatments including chemotherapy and radiation, which both damage healthy cells as well as cancer cells. However, a new approach called cancer immunotherapy uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer, specifically targeting cancer cells and leaving healthy cells unharmed. One type of immunotherapy uses a unique protein known as a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). In CAR immunotherapy, a patient's own cells are modified to produce a CAR, which acts like a guided missile to specifically find and destroy cancer cells.
Project Goal:
Our project aims to create CAR therapy for patients with neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma, two cancers common in children. Traditional testing methods to find effective CARs are slow, requiring each CAR to be built and tested one at a time. We developed a new method to test thousands of different CARs at the same time by mixing all the necessary parts together. We plan to use this method to design two CARs that work together to attack neuroblastoma cells, survive in the tough tumor environment, and prevent cancer cells from evading treatment. The best CAR pairs identified will be tested further, with the goal of using them in clinical trials for children with neuroblastoma. This innovative approach is not limited to neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. Its flexibility means it could be used to develop better treatmentsfor many types of cancer, making a significant impact in the fight against this disease.
