Our Researchers in Action

Preventing Cancer Vaccine Failure via Nanoparticle-Mediated TCR Programming
A multi-disciplinary team of immunologists, bioengineers and geneticists led by Matthias Stephan, MD, PhD, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA) is advancing new strategies for fostering the effectiveness of anti-cancer vaccines in broad patient populations by combining principles of bioengineering and gene therapy.

Phase I Trial of Folate Receptor-Alpha CAR T-Cell Therapy for Solid Cancer
At the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA), Daniel J. Powell, Jr., PhD, and colleagues are offering new hope to women battling advanced ovarian cancer. With a novel CAR T immunotherapy strategy, Dr. Powell uses genetic engineering to engage a patient’s existing immune system and enable it to recognize and destroy cancer.

Antigenic Stealthing of oHSV for Systemic Treatment of Melanoma
At the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA), Joseph Glorioso, III, MD, PhD, is pioneering creative new strategies to more safely and successfully target and triumph over melanoma and other metastatic cancers. His studies build on past successes in fighting solid tumors with viruses and a patient’s own immune system.

Class I and Class II Restricted TCRs following Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy
Determined to produce more consistent, complete and durable responses to T cell therapies for solid tumors, Seth Pollack, MD, and his team at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA) are developing a first-ever combination of two types of genetically engineered T cells (CD4+ and CD8+), each with unique receptors. With assistance from precision radiation, it’s hoped the cells will recognize and demolish sarcomas.

RRV for Immunogenic Suicide Gene Therapy and Checkpoint Inhibition in Glioma
Noriyuki Kasahara, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Brain Tumor Center are exploring how to use genetically engineered viruses (known as vectors) to infect cancer cells. Once inside the cells, “suicide genes” delivered by these vectors enable a chemotherapy drug to be generated inside the infected cancer cell itself, which also in turn activates the immune system to attack and destroy glioblastoma and other brain tumors with very few adverse side effects.