Abeloff V Scholar (New grant) *
The immune system has special cells called T cells that can find and kill cancer. Scientists can now take a patient’s own T cells and change them in the lab so they recognize that patient’s specific cancer, then give the cells back as a treatment. This approach has already saved many lives. However, for some brain and blood cancers, the cancer finds ways to wear down these T cells or hide from them, so most patients eventually get sick again.Scientists have found many small genetic changes that can make T cells stronger and help them survive longer in the body. The problem is that testing each change one at a time in patients would take decades and enormous resources, time that people facing these cancers do not have.Our project solves this problem by building a single treatment made up of many different T cells. Each cell carries one of these genetic improvements. This lets us test many changes at the same time instead of one at a time, which will speed up our search for what actually works. We also use a new, safer editing method along with a tracking tool. This tool lets us see which changes help T cells survive longer and fight cancer better, first in laboratory models and then in patients.Our project focuses on one type of brain cancer, glioblastoma, and one type of blood cancer, multiple myeloma, since both currently have limited treatment options. However, our hope is that this approach will not stay limited to these two cancers, and can be adapted to help patients with many other types of cancer as well.
