Jessica Thaxton, PhD, MsCR

T cells are part of the body’s immune system. T cells ward off disease but are also capable of fighting cancers. In fact, immune therapies in cancers have produced major gains in allowing patients with cancer to survive long-term. T cells can invade cancers, but cancers create a hostile environment that limits T cell killing capacity. This makes immune therapies function poorly. We have discovered a pathway in T cells that is engaged by the hostile environment of tumors that induces T cell distress and death. We have found a group of drugs that inhibit this pathway. These drugs also protect T cells from sensing the stressful environment of cancer. This group of drugs allows T cells to live longer and fight harder to eliminate cancer. We have found that these drugs improve the long-term outcomes of immune therapies and hold potential to increase the number of patients cured of cancer when treated with immune therapy. This project plans to study this stress pathway in T cells in samples from patients with cancer and to test these drugs in several models so that they can be used in the clinic to fight cancer in patients.